Man of Steel - a slightly alternative approach to the movie
by adkal
Summary: Using 2013's 'Man of Steel' as the basic template, here's a slightly different approach. It's not as 'non-linear' as the movie (in the first installment) but please do let me know what you think (I know some will view it as a pointless exercise ;) ) Note: a lot of the movie's existing scenes are not changed and take place in and around these alternate scenes.
1. Chapter 1

The note read:

_'I'm really sorry about taking the clothes and boots. I will send you money to replace them as soon as I can.'_

The man looked around him and up and down the road. He had barely been in the house for two minutes, but there was no one in sight.

In a phone booth, Clark is putting on the shirt he had taken from the back of the car. while making a call.

'I wasn't able to get any pictures; the fire pretty much wrecked everything.'

'But you're okay?' said the voice on the other end.

'I'm fine, sir.'

'Clark, how many times do I have to tell you to call me 'George'?'

Clark smiles as he crouches down to tie up a boot. 'I'm sorry, Mr Taylor, but my parents didn't raise me that way.'

An exasperated voice on the end of the phone sighs and says, 'Fine, but we'll change you in time, young man. Will you be able to send your piece in tonight? We might be able to get it on to the early morning run, or at least online.'

'You'll have it in half an hour.'

Clark steps out of the phone booth and puts on the jacket he had taken earlier. He catches sight of a school bus and remembers.

* * *

'My son was _on_ the bus. He _saw_ what Clark did.'

Jonathan, cradling a cup of tea, smiled at Pete. 'Son, what exactly did you see?' Mrs Ross was about to interrupt but Jonathan held up a hand. 'Abigail, please, let the boy speak.'

'I…I didn't see anything,' said Pete.

'Peter Joseph Ross!' exclaimed his mother.

'I didn't Ma. I was underwater and I couldn't see a thing. Clark…Clark saved me. He dived in and he saved me.'

'And we're grateful he did, son,' said Jonathan as he glanced out of the window. 'We're grateful that he did.'

'But the other children,' protested Mrs Ross. 'They saw-'

Jonathan shrugged. 'Police said the driver's foot was jammed on the gas, and when the back door opened and the weight shifted…maybe it was Pete falling out of the bus that ended up saving everyone?' he said, smiling at Pete.

Pete smiled back, 'Yeah, maybe.'

* * *

After the Rosses had left the Kent farm, Jonathan made his way to where Clark had 'retreated'.

'I just wanted to help,' Clark said, hearing him approach and wary of the hubbub his actions had caused.

'I know you did, but we talked about this, right? Right? We talked about this! You have…' Clark's shoulders slumped and Jonathan paused for a moment, the harshness of his words and his tone washing over him. 'Clark, you have to keep this side of you a secret.'

'What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?' Clark protested, kicking feet and looking away from his father.

Jonathan shook his head. 'Maybe,' Clark's head snapped round in shock. 'Maybe there was some other way. Some way to have saved them without drawing attention to yourself.'

'There wasn't time, Dad.'

'I know…I just…' he walked round the side of the truck and sat beside Clark. 'You're always going to want to help people - and that's great, it really is. But…there's more at stake than our lives or the lives of those around us. The things you can do…Clark, you've _seen_ how people have reacted; you can _hear_ what they're saying.' Clark turned his head, his face shadowed with sadness. 'The things you can do, and you wanting to help people, that's a _powerful_ combination. It's something great. But you've seen and you've heard. You know their fear, and…I just think you need to…_we_ need to find a way where you can do the things you can but without drawing attention.'

'People…they're going to find out eventually,' Clark reasoned.

'They are. Probably. But we don't have to help them, do we? Clark, you and…you change everything.'

'How? Why am I different? Is Mrs Ross right? Did God make me this way?'

* * *

(After Jonathan shows Clark the ship and tells him about the object he had examined…)

'You are my son…But somewhere out there you have another father, too, who gave you another name. And he sent you here for a reason, Clark; and even if it takes you the rest of your life, you owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is.'

They held each other for a few moments - Clark being careful with how hard he held is father, and Jonathan not caring and holding on to Clark as tightly as he could. They pulled away, both of them smiling: Jonathan now having the weight of the secret lifted, and Clark now having a small understanding about his 'otherness'.

'What do you think this does?' Clark asked, turning and examining the small object Jonathan had given him.

Smiling, Jonathan moved to the side of the ship, his hand running down and along the engravings on its side, and then he stopped. 'Here,' he said, rubbing the area slightly. 'It came from here.' There is a small pentagonal hole, slightly larger than the pentagon at the end of the object in Clark's hand. 'Your Ma and I tried to put it back in so many times over the years, but it kept…pushing us away. Here,' he held out his hand. 'Let me show you.'

Clark handed the object back to Jonathan, who then tried to put it back into the pentagonal hole - and his hand moved to the side. Rejected. He tried a second time and his hand was 'pushed' to the other side. He turned back to Clark and offered the object back to him: 'You try.'

Clark held the object and looked at the ship and the small hole. He was nervous - more nervous than he had been when first set the wet bed sheets Martha had hung out to dry on fire a few years ago, and more nervous than he had been earlier when Pete and Mrs Ross had come by. He stepped forward, holding up the object in between his fingers and slowly stretched his hand out to the hole. Suddenly, the object leapt from his fingers and entered the hole.

And nothing happened.

Clark and Jonathan looked at each other, their faces, alight with expectation, slowly showing disappointment. Sighing, Jonathan reached for the object, and his hand was pushed away again. Clark frowned and reached up himself, and then _pushed_ the object a little further into the hole. There was a click, and…

The ship hummed and the glyphs and engravings began to move and morph. Clark and Jonathan stepped back in shock, and Jonathan protectively placed his arm in front of his son. Strange sounds could be heard and they seemed to be voices, but whatever language it was the two Kents couldn't understand it. Over and over the sounds were emitted and then, finally: 'please, we beseech you, look after our son. In time, he can be a great good for you world. In time, he can help you accomplish wonders.'

And then there was silence, and the two Kents stood there, their mouths agape, staring at the now silent ship.

* * *

The boys opened the truck door and pulled Clark out. He had been expecting this - it was almost getting to be a routine, but they were getting more and more aggressive these days. As he fell to the floor he saw that Pete was with them, and he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

'You think you're a tough guy, Kent?' snarled Kenny as he stood over Clark.

'Just punch him, man,' encouraged one of the other boys.

Clark looked past them, straight at Pete. Pete shook his head and then shrugged. Clark then looked at Kenny, frowned, and shrugged.

'Answer me, Kent,' Kenny demanded, raising a fist.

'You've already read what I had to say, Kenny,' said Clark, gritting his teeth.

Kenny made to punch Clark but one of the other boys grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Kenny glared at him, and then saw, a couple of dozen feet away, that Jonathan and a few other adults were watching. He shrugged off his friend and glared at Clark again. 'Next time, Kent,' he growled as he stalked away.

As the last of the group of boys left, Pete stepped forward and offered Clark a hand up.

'It's like you're looking for trouble with those pieces you keep writing, Clark,' said Pete, frowning as he saw Clark had crimped the fence post he had gripped.

'Truth hurts, Pete,' Clark grinned as he took Pete's hand and got up.

'Yeah, but…c'mon, Clark, do you really want the town to hate you?'

Clark shrugged. 'They already do, don't they?'

Pete smiled and put his hand on Clark's shoulder. 'You know _we_ don't, Mr Reporter.' He looked past him, at the now distant group of boys. 'Those others, though…they don't understand.'

Pete turns to look at back at the garage and leaves as Jonathan approaches. Clark adjusts his jacket and dusts down the book he been made to drop when he had been pulled out of the truck.

'Did they hurt you?' he asked, wary of the other people watching from the front of the garage.

Clark shrugged. 'You know they can't.'

'That's not what I meant. I meant, 'are you alright?''

Clark shrugged again. 'It's my own fault. Posting an article on cheating and making some non-obscure references to who the culprits were was always going to get me into trouble.' Seeing that Jonathan was about to speak, Clark interrupted: 'I'm being careful, Dad, I promise. It's just-'

'The truth hurts, I know. Just...keep an eye on your own truth, too, Clark. The world's changing,' and then he smiles and ruffles his son's hair, 'but it will always need good reporters.'


	2. Chapter 2

_'Serial rapist on our roads?_' reads the headline of an online article.

_'As a result of external investigations which have now been submitted to the police and FBI, a multi-state investigation has been initiated in a bid to find and capture a serial rapist. Although initially considered unrelated there is speculation now that a number of rapes in various states over the last five years may have been conducted by the same person.'_

Having enjoyed his meal and drinks, Ludlow steps out of the truckstop diner in order to be on his way. His truck is at a slightly strange angle, but he shakes his head dismissively and walks towards it. As he nears it, though, he sees that a number of its tires are flat. Confused and disturbed, he swears and begins examining the tyres.

'Do you know what the problem with DNA is?' a voice asks from the shadows. Ludlow turns sharply, his eyes flitting from side to side as he tires to find the source of the voice.

'The '_problem_' with DNA is that it's all over the place. It's just not something that can be completely wiped away. Corrupted, sure, but removed completely in the short time frames you had, and with the methods you used? Not going to happen.'

'Who's there?' Ludlow shouts out, standing a little taller and masking his fear with his aggression.

'The FBI thinks it's around five years, but I think it's been seven. What do you think, Ludlow?'

Ludlow hurriedly opens the door to his truck and pulls out a crowbar. 'I think,' he shouts, brandishing the crowbar, 'that you're about to regret getting up my nose.'

Clark steps out of the shadows, his hands tucked into his pockets and his bag slung over his shoulder.

Ludlow snorts and points at Clark with the end of the crowbar. 'Busboy. What? Too chicken to make a scene inside you decided to sneak up on me?'

Clark shrugs. 'The _only_ things that I regret are not tracking you down sooner, and letting you paw away at Chrissy.'

'Paw?' scoffs Ludlow, sauntering forward and swinging the crowbar around as he approaches Clark. 'She loves it. Loves the attention, and wants it. Just like you want _this_.' He swings the crowbar at Clark's head and grunts with surprise as he jerks in mid swing. Clark, holding the crowbar with one hand - Ludlow tries to pull it free but Clark remains immobile. He then gives a small tug and Ludlow finds himself off his feet and onto the gravelly carpark.

Clark looks towards the diner, frowns, and then grabs Ludlow with one hand and carries him back to the truck (under his arm, like one would carry a naughty child). 'The police are on their way, and it wouldn't suit them if you weren't around, so,' he puts Ludlow on the ground, bends the crowbar and ties him to the step on the driver's side of the truck's cabin.

'Hey!' Ludlow shouts, tugging at his arm. Clark steps back. 'HEY!' Ludlow shouts. 'What the hell is this?!' He kicks at the ground and pulls at the wrapped crowbar. Behind Clark, in the distance but quickly getting closer, are a couple of sets of flashing blue lights. Ludlow's eyes widen and he glares at Clark and snarls, 'There's no proof.'

Clark crouches down, shifting his bag slightly. 'There's proof, and they have it. They just needed you.'

Raging, Ludlow screams and tries to punch Clark but there's nothing but empty air.

* * *

The exploratory operation has been underway for more than five weeks. The scientists and those with some awareness are all quite excited, the 'regular' folk on site, though, are cold and in a moaning mood.

A group of people are gathered in the Mess Hall, doling out mixed bean soup and having a bit of a social session. 'Seriously, Joe, what on earth possessed you to sign up for this gig?' one of them asks Clark.

Clark smiles and shrugs. 'What possessed you to?'

The man laughs. 'The money, really.'

'And time away from the wife,' jabs one of the others, and a few of them laugh. For a moment, Clark has a distant look on his face as he looks at the blank wall just behind them.

'I reckon it's probably some kind of dinosaur gravesite or something,' offers one of the other people.

'Or oil,' suggests another.

Looking up from his soup one of them says, with a deadpan look, 'Or gas,' and there's more laughter.

'Seriously, though, Joe?'

'Oh…money, like you said, and a bit of intrigue, really.'

'You're not one of those 'buried UFO' types are you?' bemoaned the questioner.

'World's full of wonders, right?' says Clark, winking and sipping his soup.

* * *

(On the ship, after it has moved itself to another location.)

Clark is looking at the readings and equipment.

'We are safe here and away from prying eyes,' says a voice from behind. Clark turns to see the Jor-conscience.

'There are-'

'Satellites and radar and other meanings of tracking, I know.' Interrupts the Jor-conscience. It smiles. 'To see you standing there, having grown into an adult…'

'Who are you? Why did the ship instruct me to leave Lois Lane out there?'

'I am your father, Kal, or at least a shadow of him. His consciousness. My name is Jor-El. Ms Lane is quite safe, I assure you. Even now she is being picked up by rescue personnel at the site.' Clark stares at him, grimacing. 'I promise you, Kal. She's safe.'

'Kal? That's my name?'

'Kal-El. Yes, it is.'

'And…you're speaking English?'

The Jor-conscience smiles. 'The ship that brought you to Earth, it scanned, assimilated, and analysed all the languages it could as it approached. When you used the command key all those years ago it was able to determine the language you knew.'

'The message?'

'Yes. And I am…grateful to your…'

'Parents. They are my parents.'

The Jor-conscience nods and smiles. 'Parents. I'm glad. They seem to have raised you well.'

Clark stands a little straighter and broadens his chest. 'They did the best they could.'

'I know it could not have been easy for them. Or for you.'

'I have so many questions.' Clark says, quickly. 'Where do I come from? Why did you send me here?'

'Hope is the basic answer to those questions, Kal. It's what you carry and it…' he looks at Kal, quizzically. 'It seems to be something you do?'

'What do you mean?'

Jor smiles. 'In a moment. You come from Krypton - a world with a much harsher environment than Earth's. Or, rather, than Earth's current one. Long ago, in an era of expansion, our race spread out through the stars, seeking new worlds to settle upon. Worlds around a sun similar to our own - a red sun. This scout ship is a curiosity, it was never meant to come here.'

He turns to Clark and smiles. 'Providence, perhaps?'

He gestures to Clark to follow and continues talking. 'Krypton was dying. After millennia of exploration and progress we began to turn in on ourselves.' He frowns and pauses for a moment. 'Hmm…much like some people of this world, there was xenophobia. Those born of Krypton rejected and abandoned those born in the outposts, and although those worlds initially continued to flourish, after thousands of years they, too, died. The Kryptonian elite, the Councils and Guilds, felt that this justified their xenophobia and moved to…purify Krypton even further.'

'How?' Clark interrupts. 'Eugenics?'

'In essence, yes.' They arrive at the Genesis Chamber and the Jor-conscience continues to explain. 'Previously, long before the expansion, and as a means of filtering genetic defects and ensuring a strong and positive initial growth period, all Kryptonians were…conceived and developed in vitro in chambers such as this one. After the Contraction and collapse, additional elements were added so Kryptonians were now specifically engineered. The randomness and perceived chaos of someone finding their own way, learning their own potential, all of that was taken away from them. Now, people were born with a purpose and role engrained in them.'

'Including you?'

'Including me, and including your mother. Our purposes, though, as scientists, enabled us to, inadvertently, find loopholes. Find you.'

'Me?'

'Although you were conceived through science, you were not developed in vitro like we were; you were developed in utero, like no Kryptonian had been for thousands of years. _That_ is how you embody hope - the hope of Krypton.'

'And where is Krypton?'

'She is gone. This scout ship has confirmed it with its scans.'

'So I am alone?'

'No, you are as much a child of Earth as you are of Krypton. They can help you as you have been helping them.' He smiles. 'On Krypton, much like in the various cultures on Earth, we had stories and legends of heroes. Knights and warriors and people ready to put their lives on the line for others. This world has a lot of heroes, Kal. I can see them, but I can see they are losing hope, too.'

'You said I had been doing something. What do you mean?'

'Helping. Since you inserted the command key I instructed the ship to scan and upload information. Your parents _have_ raised you well; perhaps better than you may have been raised on Krypton.'

A compartment opens and we see the uniform.

'This ship is somewhat like a museum now. Thousands of years old, but not without merit. It, like you, is a link to the Krypton of old, and perhaps together you can bring Earth forward, too.'

'Together?'

'This ship can teach you. I can teach you.'

Clark nods at the uniform.

'Knights and warriors of old, Kal,' says the Jor-conscience, smiling. 'Colours of hope and leadership. This world has nourished you, strengthened you and given you abilities far beyond what I had calculated and reasoned. You have already tried to help this world, and perhaps now you can help it more.

'They need you; not to look down on them but to help them up. To catch them and shield them. Perhaps to even be a hero to the heroes.'

* * *

Deep in space a massive vessel seems to be adrift. Inside it reside nearly two dozen people, and almost all of them are bored and frustrated. For decades they have travelled from one ruined world to another, each time hoping that their next destination would give them the solace they are looking for: a home. Each time they only find disappointment.

Faora-Ul does what she does every day: she trains. The Black Zero, a Kryptonian prison ship, contains a massive combat training facility, one that was supposed to be there for the benefit of its guards, only there are no guards now, and have not been since Jor-El discovered the Phantom Zone decades earlier.

Faora-Ul does what she does every day: she trains and she mourns Krypton's destruction.

In his laboratory, Jax-Ur also does what he does every day: he laments the limitations of the facilities he has and curses Jor-El for not designing the ship with more. As well as his lamentations and curses, Jax-Ur remembers, with wistful fondness, the day he destroyed Wegthor.

On the ship's bridge, as he does every day, General Zod reviews the archives of old, detailing the destinations and reports of thousands of scout ships from millennia ago. Around him are a few dedicated officers who input codes and scan frequencies, wholly embracing their leader's belief that out there is a world they would be able to call their own, and where they would be able to bring back Krypton.

A control panel, long silent, beeps and lights up. Everyone on the bridge stops what they are doing and look to Zod. Quietly, the General walks over to the control panel and looks at the readings. 'Display and analyse,' he commands, and the centre of the large room lights up with equations and star maps, and an identifier readout of a scout ship.

Frowning, Zod issues another command: 'Confirm identifier.'

'Identifier confirmed. Scout ship 0344.'

'Set a course and initiate data mine,' he orders, turning on his heel and making his way off the bridge.

* * *

As Lois Lane leaves the IHop, annoyed with herself for not being able to 'break' the manager and get the information she needed, Pete Ross pulls a strange object from his pocket. It looks like a pen, but it contains no ink. Pete pushes the glyph on the side and whispers: 'Clark? It's Pete. I think you need to come home. Don't worry, your Mom is fine. There's a reporter digging into the bus incident and she has photos of you.'

Lois pulls out a list from her bag and crosses off Pete Ross's name. Among the others listed are Lana Lang and Whitney Fordham, but besides their names, and a number of others', is a note: 'no longer living in Smallville.' Undeterred, Lois head to the Smallville library.

* * *

'Dad, you've _seen_ the changes my writing has brought to this town, I _know_ I can do more out there.'

'I know, Clark, I know, but...you're barely seventeen. Focus on college for now, please?'

'Dad, come on, I-'

'He _has_ almost graduated, Jonathan,' interrupts Martha.

'Those are remote classes, Martha, and you heard Mr Phillips: Clark could be a great scientist or even an inventor. He can make a difference that way, the way he did when he fixed our thresher.'

'That's not fair, Dad. Please?'

'Son, just...give me this for now. Please? I just...it feels like you're growing up too fast.'

'Fine,' mumbles Clark, slumping into his seat.

Ahead of them they see the storm, and the abandoned cars. Clark leans forward, his eyes wide at first and then squinting, and then wide again. 'It's turning, Pa. It's going to head this way.'

'You're sure?'

'Positive.' Clark looks out of the back of the truck. 'There are too many cars back there to get everyone to turn around, and...no, it's picking up speed.'

'The ditch. Go. Go!'

They clamour out of the car and head to the ditch. Seeing a woman struggling with her children, Jonathan hurries forward to help. All around them panicking people are running, stumbling, falling, and children are crying and struggling.

'Pa!' shouts Clark, and Jonathan nods and shouts back, 'Be careful!'

Clark hurries to the nearest car and tugs at the belt holding in the child safety seat. The belt snaps and Clark pulls out the seat and hands it the child's mother, and tells her to get to the ditch. Martha ushers people to the ditch while Jonathan, Clark, and other people try to help those around them.

A woman stumbles and hurts her leg, and her daughters scream and try to help her up. Clark shouts to his father and the others: 'These are the last ones! Get to the ditch!' and hurries over to her and tells her to get on his back while he carries two of the girls under this arms and the third against his chest. The woman and the girls are screaming against the wind as Clark easily makes his way to the ditch. At the ditch, the woman, helped by Martha, slides off and slumps painfully to the ground, and Clark places two of the girls onto the ground and tries to coax off the one clinging to his neck. From the corner of his eye he sees Jonathan stumble and struggle against the wind.

'Honey, please, you have to let go. I need to go back and help.' The girl is screaming, crying into Clark's chest and Clark sees the winds getting stronger and Jonathan struggling more. 'Please, honey, let me go.' Cars are getting tossed into the air and the other two girls suddenly grab onto Clark's legs.

'Ma!' shouts Clark, desperately. 'Take them. I can save him.' Martha and the girls' mother try to get the girls to let Clark go and Clark, helpless, watches his father struggle.

'Don't,' Jonathan coughs, as he struggles to stand upright. 'You did good, son,' he whispers as he grabs at the side of a car. 'I'm proud of you.'

Clark screams in anguish, fighting every urge to pull the girls off him and rush to his father's aid, and Martha hides her face against his back.

'I made a choice that day, Ms Lane. A choice I knew my father would have wanted to make, but it was the hardest one I had ever had to make. I could have removed the girls, but I would have hurt them in doing so. I could have rushed to him and saved him, but I would have hurt him and others around me in doing so.

'My father taught me that there is a right and a wrong in the universe and that the distinction isn't a difficult one, but that day the right felt so wrong. My father died in order to keep this secret. He died because the world wasn't ready for something like me.'

'I think the world's ready now, Clark. I really do.'

* * *

A news presenter looks straight at the camera and asks, in a serious tone, 'Who _is_ the 'Blue Angel', or is it a 'Red Angel'? Are there two of them?

'For weeks now, across the world, there have been stories of impossible rescues, landslides being diverted, and gangs and militia from as far afield as Mexico and the Central African Republic, to India, Burma, and Detroit finding their guns and ammo…melted.

'Joining me now is Andy Carlini, editor of the _National Whisper_, who has been following this story for-

'Years,' Andy interrupted. 'I've been following it all for_ years_, and now the pieces are all in place. Aliens have finally begun to fully reveal themselves to us, and these ones want us to think that they're here to help.'

'To think that?' asks the reporter, with a bemused smile.

'To think it. Get us to lower our guard and then take us over.'

'But why now?'

'Look around us. We're reaching a peak in technology and soon we'll be a threat to them.'

'That doesn't-'

'The spaceship uncovered in Ellesmere-'

'I'm sorry, what? Spaceship?'

Andy laughs. 'Come on now, you must have read the article posted on Woodburn's website.'

'I,' the reporter laughs, 'I honestly thought that was some kind of spoof. Surely if something-'

'300 feet long, yes. As the article states, there were dozens of people who saw it happen and can corroborate the story.'

'Then where is this ship now?'

Andy shrugs, dismissively. 'Somewhere. The _point_, however, is that now the occupants of that ship are free and are-'

'So you think this Red or Blue Angel-'

'Angels. There're definitely two of them at least.'

'Angels, aliens. You think they're from this ship only one place has reported?'

'Let me put it this way: you're reporting these stories now because so many others are, across the world, but just because only one person knows a story that doesn't make the story untrue.'

'So, aliens are among us?'

'They are, and we are in deep sh-'

'Andy Carlini, thank you.'

* * *

Perry turns from the television and looks at Lois. She shrugs, smiles, and is about to speak when Perry starts.

''Angels'. You came to me with aliens, and these people are running with 'angels'.'

'I didn't start this, Perry.'

'No, but you've helped contribute to it a little.'

'I dropped the story, remember?'

Perry sits down, suddenly looking very tired. 'Do you think I've never imagined what would happen if…if something like this ever _did_ happen? I was watching when Armstrong stepped on the moon. I was watching and waiting and…'

Lois sits down in the chair in front of Perry's desk. 'Hoping?' she asks.

'At first. But others around me were terrified. Terrified that we were sullying what God had placed in the universe - that was the reasoning they gave, and I believed that. Then I realised it was a different kind of fear: if there_ is_ something else out there, something like us but able to get _to_ us, then isn't that something better than us? It wasn't just fear of the unknown and different, it was a fear of finding out that we weren't that special.'

'And now?'

'Now, we have someone who can dig a massive trench and divert a landslide.'

'Isn't that hope, though?'

'Is it, Lois? Or is it proving we're less than nothing?'

Lois shakes her head and stands up. 'No,' she says, firmly. 'It's proving that we're worth saving.'

Perry looks at the scattered images on his desk - images of melted metal, of villagers huddled but smiling, of people cheering. 'I hope you're right, Lois.'


	3. Chapter 3

The Kent farmhouse is immaculate. All the paintwork, guttering, and anything else that needed doing have been done. Martha Kent smiles and shakes her head a little. She whispers Clark's name.

'Anything you need, Ma?'

She starts and hits Clark playfully. 'You and your speed,' she chides, laughing.

Clark grins and says, 'And my hearing, Ma.'

'Busy day?'

'A variable one. There's so much happening out there, Ma-'

'Clark,' she says as she takes hold of his arm, 'you _know_ you can't be everywhere.'

'I know. I just…' he tilts his head back and looks up at the sky and sighs. 'Choosing where to be is so hard. I can hear and see more than I ever could before but…I have limits, and…it doesn't seem fair.'

They sit down on the steps at the front of the house, watching the dog running around.

'Your father,' said Martha, softly, as she leans against him, 'he knew you were going to change the world, but he also knew it was going to be hard. Sometimes, though, I wonder if maybe we did things too slowly; that maybe we held you back-'

Clark shakes his head. 'No, what you did helped to temper me. Pa was right - going out 'guns blazing' would have been destructive. For all we know, I might not have even been bullet-proof back then.'

'Excuse me?' Fear flashing across her face, Martha grabs Clark and turns him to face her. 'Bullet proof?'

'Yeah.'

'You _let_ yourself get shot?'

'I…there wasn't time. The gunmen were too trigger happy and I had to shield those children.'

'Children?'

'In Sudan.'

'There…I didn't see anything on the news,' says Martha, confused.

'I know. A lot of what I've been doing tends to be unreported; but that's a good thing. It keeps me under the radar for now. I'm just a rumour, and in some places rumours have more of an effect than truth.'

'So…you're still hiding?'

'For now. It's for the best. Pa was right to be worried about how people would react when they truly knew about me, so maybe if I introduce myself slowly there won't be such a…backlash.'

'I still think the cape's too long, though.'

'You don't think it looks regal?'

'I know you've never wanted to be regal, just accepted.'

'Clark _is_ accepted, Ma.' He turns his head away. 'This other side of me, though, he's going to have to be different. It seems…both my fathers expected me to lead.' Turning back to Martha, he smiles, 'I'm glad I took the time to learn all those languages, though.'

'We did say they would come in useful, didn't we?'

'_Very_ useful. It's one thing lifting a building off of someone, but it's quite another to talk to them in their language and reassure them.'

* * *

In his chambers Zod is standing and looking out into the depths of space. He turns and waves his hand and a display opens up in front of him. The glyphs read that it is the 'Archives of the Great Exploration' and Zod reaches out and begins to sift through the data until he comes to the 'file' marked '0344', which he then 'expands' and begins to work through. Images of a handful of men and women are displayed before him, and next to the image of a blonde woman is a familiar 'S' sigil. Zod grabs the tactile data display and pulls it to one side, opening another display, this one showing further information on the blonde woman.

'An _El_,' he growls under his breath.

* * *

A wounded elephant is breathing slow, awkward breaths, and a baby elephant is desperately nudging away at the bigger elephant, encouraging it to get up. A tear can be seen trickling down the adult elephant's cheek. As the poachers approach, the adult elephant tries to move and get up and the baby elephant tries to help. One of the poachers draws a massive machete like blade and, seeing the adult elephant struggle, he has a bit of a spring in his step. Two other poachers are brandishing a large net in order to capture the baby and keep it out of the way. In the distance the sky is filling with dust as a helicopter flies close to the ground before ascending again.

Grinning, the machete-wielding poacher lunges at the adult elephant, and swings downwards with a double-handed grip.

The blade shatters against a blue 'object'.

Eyes aflame, Clark, dressed in the uniform, flicks the stunned poacher back. The other poachers grab at their AK47s only to drop them suddenly as their hands burn and the guns melt. Two of them scream and run away while another rushes at Clark and attacks him, to no avail, with a short knife. The blade bends and the attacker cries out in pain as his wrist snaps from his awkward attack.

The remaining men grab at each other and pull each other away from the scene, and one of them shouts into a walkie-talkie that 'the demon is here'. Clark lets them run away while he turns his attention to the downed elephant. The baby watches him in confusion, and Clark whispers to the adult elephant, apologising, and then lifts it up with one hand, using the other to gently stroke it. The elephant is unsteady on its feet but Clark continues to support it while he uses his x-ray vision to locate the bullets and then, with heat vision and some speed, he extracts the bullets and cauterises the injuries. He then helps the elephant on to its side to rest, tickles the baby elephant behind its ear, and rises up into the sky.

He turns in mid-air for a few moments, scanning the area one more time, and then leans forward and accelerates towards the distant speck of a helicopter. His eyes flash red again and the helicopter begins to suddenly spin in the air, the pilot no longer in control. A couple of seconds later and the blades stop working and the helicopter begins to fall. Clark accelerates a little more and catches the helicopter before promptly shaking it vigorously. Inside, the occupants either hit their heads against the inside of the helicopter and knock themselves out, or scream in fear, disoriented by what has just happened. They then find themselves pinned to their seats by the sudden increase in G-forces as the helicopter shoots up into their air, aided by Clark. He then banks and flies down at speed, and more screams can be heard from inside.

A group of harried rangers look up at the sky and one of them slowly raises his walkie-talkie and says, in a voice filled with awe, 'the angel has arrived here, too'. Clark descends and places the helicopter and its occupants on the ground. He then addresses the rangers in their language and tells them of the location of the injured elephant, and then politely asks a couple of the shocked rangers to go to the elephant and tend to it. Awed but a little embarrassed, the rangers apologise and hurriedly, and stumbling over the words a little, express their thanks, tentatively offering their hands. Clark smiles at them and shakes their hands and says, 'I'm happy to help and will try to do whatever I can'.

As two of the rangers rush to their jeep, Clark rises back into the air again. He's a dozen or so feet in the air when he pauses and says, 'please, continue the great work you do. You're all an inspiration to many,' and then he disappears in a burst of speed.

Two of the rangers, their faces set with determination, step towards the quiet helicopter.

* * *

From the massive viewing screens of the control room all that can be seen outside is a shimmering blue energy.

'How long before we arrive in the solar system?'

'Sir, a little over a week. We've tried to compensate for-'

'There is no need for reasons; I am more than aware, now, of the difficulties of travelling the stars, even in this…dimension. What do we know about the scout ship? Is there any record of it establishing an outpost?'

'No, Sir. Ship designate 0344 never made it to its assigned sector, and where the signal came from is tens of light years away from there.'

'Then what _do_ we know? How could that ship possibly start signalling?'

'It was a sweeper signal, Sir, not a distress signal.'

'Yes, but why _now_?'

'Maybe some other beings found it and disturbed it? Our systems translated that it was searching for Krypton. As per protocol we barred the Black Zero from sending a response...' his voice fades as he watches Zod walk away.

Others in the large room are busy with their assigned tasks, and Jax-Ur and a couple of assistants are reviewing incoming data about the solar system they are steadily making their way towards. Seeing Zod approach Jax-Ur steps away from his display and nods in greeting.

'Your review?'

'The planet is considerably smaller than Krypton, and certainly is not one which the old Exploration Council would have listed as a suitable colony planet or outpost. The young star would not be - no, _is not _- conducive to a Kryptonian environment. There is simply no logic for the scout ship to have made its way to this system, let alone that planet.'

Nodding, Zod turns and walks away.

* * *

A boy in his late teens is sitting in Perry White's office, his leg is bouncing up and down and he can't stop looking around and playing with his fingers. At his desk, Perry is scrolling through the images on a large camera.

'And these photos,' Perry asks, tentatively.

'Exclusive, sir. I disabled my wi-fi and Bluetooth, just in case. When I saw what I had I knew I had to come see you.'

'This is very good work, Jimmy.'

'Thank you, sir. I was in the right place at the right time and took advantage of the opportunity.'

'I especially like the fifth one. You have a good eye.'

'The one with the car being held aloft?'

'That's the one. A definite front-pager.'

Jimmy grins and his leg stops bouncing. Perry smiles, reaches for his phone and makes a call. 'Lois, I need to you come in here.'

* * *

The ship is an orbit millions of miles away from Earth, 'hiding' behind Mars. On board, brief images of Superman in action flash in the centre of the control room. On the bridge, Zod watches the images and then watches each of his followers in turn. Finally, he steps forward and addresses Jax-Ur, who has been sitting to one side, frowning, his fingers steepled.

'Have you been able to ascertain how he is doing all this without armour? Without...anything?'

Jax-Ur stands and steps forward, ignoring all the others watching him. 'Not yet. It _may_ be that Jor-El devised a way of miniaturising our technologies and incorporating it into a body suit, but I can find nothing to corroborate that from our initial scans.'

'What else do you need?'

'Frankly, I need the boy. The bio-readings just do not make sense. His energy output…and what seem to be-'

'You will need to make do without for now. We are not letting this planet or _him_ know that we are here until we have made sure that _we_ have the advantage.' Zod waves his hand to signal the meeting is dismissed and the Kryptonians move to get back to their designated tasks.

'It may be this sun,' Jax-Ur suddenly blurts out.

There room is silent again as all attention is now wholly on Jax-Ur. 'Explain,' commands Zod, his hand reaching out for Jax-Ur's hovering display, gesturing, and pulling it towards him. Jax-Ur reaches for his display as it rises towards Zod but then he stops himself, lowers his hand, and grits his teeth for a moment.

'Jor-El kept certain parts of his various researches stored on this ship. Part of his preparation for the evacuation of Krypton.'

'I know. It took you three years to get access to his junior papers,' and Jax-Ur bristled at Zod's tone of voice - a dismissal of Jax-Ur's ability and an admiration of Jor-El's.

'He has some on young stars and their effects on Kryptonian physiology.'

'And?'

'And, according to what I have decoded so far, he believed the radiation of a star like this one would eventually increase a Kryptonian's strength and general durability.'

Zod turned to look again at the various displays of Superman and his feats. 'How do you propose we test Jor-El's theory?'

One of Jax-Ur's assistants quickly stepped forward and, his nervousness making his voice waver, he interrupts: 'Sir, Jor-El posited that adult Kryptonians would experience a massive rush of power for a period of approximately eight hours before returning to a level slightly above their original base level. He further posited that after that there would be gradual increases but that it would take an adult at least another two years to reach that initial power level.'

'So we would be able to do what _he_ can do for eight hours. That doesn't answer my question.'

'We adjust our filters, General,' Jax-Ur replies, smiling.

* * *

A pile of newspapers hits the ground and the plastic band holding it together is cut away. It's the afternoon edition of _The Daily Planet_ and headline reads: 'A Superman?'. The top copy is picked up and unfolded and the leading image is of Clark in the uniform holding aloft an antique car from the 1930s. His cape billows (or as much as a photo can 'billow') behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

The Jor-conscience and Kal are reviewing screens with streams of data and images. At the same time, at Northcom command centre, alarms are flashing as dozens of satellites are being commandeered and their data re-routed. As the data is translated by the scout ship's systems, clarified images and operational information begin to appear.

'The Black Zero,' whispers the Jor-conscience.

'You know it?'

'I designed it, Kal.'

'Then you can help?'

'Of course, but that,' he points to the underside of an image of the ship, 'is a World Engine. That is a little trickier to handle.'

'They…have something they can terraform Earth with?!'

'Earth isn't compatible to Kryptonian parameters, Kal. If they use it, it will tear this planet apart.'

'Tell me what I need to know. Please?'

'The only way Zod is here is if his coup failed and he was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. The Black Zero was our hub. Access to the Zone could only be done through a member of the House of El, and there is no way that I or your mother would have helped him.'

'Then how did he get free?'

'I've remotely accessed the Black Zero and Kelex,' he gestures at a new robot, 'will buffer this ship's systems in order to buy us some time before anyone on board the Black Zero detects us. The…destruction of Krypton disrupted the integrity of the Zone Gate and, in turn, triggered a release of the Zoners. After that, it seems Jax-Ur and a few others were able to adapt the Phantom Drive to enable them to phase out of the zone and to travel the depths of space.'

'Will he leave this planet alone if I give myself up to him?'

'I…I don't know, Kal. The Zod I knew when I was young certainly would have. The Zod who attempted a coup…I cannot say.'

'Can we send them back somehow, if the worst comes to the worst?'

'Yes. The adjustments they made were flawed and your Phantom Drive, if recalibrated, can send them back to the Zone. But there is a risk you can be pulled along with them.' The Jor-conscience pauses for a moment. 'They…are aware of what you can do.'

'I can work around that. It took me years to develop my abilities to this level so-'

'No, Kal. As adults they will, each one, have the same powers and abilities as you do. Their armour gives them an advantage,' he points at Kal's arm. 'Remember what the drone did when you first accessed this ship?'

'How many are there?'

'Twenty.'

'There has to-'

'Each one will have the same powers and abilities, but only for around eight hours. For some it will be less. Then they will revert to their normal levels. By human standards, nothing short of an exploding shell will pierce their skin then.'

Clark turns away and begins pacing. 'This…poachers, assaulters, sinking ships…they were difficult in many ways but I adjusted and handled things; but twenty people…if they're as fast as me and as strong as me…'

'Earth's atmosphere will work to your advantage. They will struggle to acclimatise to it. But if you go on board the Black Zero then the advantage will be theirs. It would take at least two hours for you to acclimatise, and in that time they could easily kill you.'

'Then we have to take their advantage away somehow.'

* * *

In the Northcom command centre, engineers and technicians scurry around trying to figure out what went wrong with their systems. Team leaders are taking calls from complaining counterparts from other centres across the world.

* * *

'Joining me again today is Andy Carlini of _The National Whisper_. Andy, this picture,' he holds up the image that was on the front page of _The Daily Planet_, 'has broken the internet, as they say. Collectively, it's been tweeted more than 10 million times overnight, and it seems we _almost_ have a face for our alien angel.' He points at the shadows covering the caped figure's face. 'Experts are using various technologies to clean up the image and, potentially, identify this…'super'-being. What are your thoughts on this latest revelation?'

'This may surprise viewers, especially those who think they have an understanding of me, but I'm convinced that this image is a hoax.'

'A hoax, how?'

'Considering the fact that it's the _only_ image we have, and it occurred in a place where at least _dozens_ of people had access to some sort of camera phone at the very least, well, frankly, I find it hard to believe no one else was able to take any pictures.'

'The article accompanying the image states that there was some sort of localised EMP, and this has been confirmed by the police and fire departments-'

'Convenient, isn't it? Far be it for me to suggest that _The Daily Planet_ may be…engineering a story, but with the only image available being through them, I think my scepticism is understandable.'

'Andy Carlini, thank you.'

* * *

Martha looks up into the sky and calls for Clark. He turns from the basketball game on the television and goes outside the farm house and looks up into the sky at where his mother is pointing.

'It's time, Ma,' he says softly.

She bows her head. 'They're your people. You…you were so happy when you found out where you came from.'

'If they mean well then everything will be okay.' He pulls her into a hug and kisses the top of her head. 'If they don't-'

She hushes him.

The electricity flickers and the power goes out. A high pitched interference can be heard from the television.

* * *

The UN Building in Metropolis, like its much larger counterpart in New York, has an array of defence systems in place in order to protect the lives of the diplomats, dignitaries, and staff that spend their time within. In general, the building has a degree of heightened security - it's par for the course - but as a result of the worldwide alien broadcast the security is at a level never seen before. Dozens upon dozens of armed men line the walls and patrol the grounds, and in the streets outside there are more armed police, accompanying various divisions of the armed forces from nearby bases. Further beyond the compound, in the sky above, dozens of fighter jets criss-cross the airspace, their on-board scanners feeding back data to Northcom.

Inside, in the Assembly room, it is chaos as the fears of billions of people are concentrated and manifested in the men and women representing them. Suddenly, a talled figure dressed in blue appears in front of a lectern in the middle of the conference floor. His cape flutters in the air as it comes to rest and the figure stands there quietly, waiting. The sound of doors slamming can barely be heard over the shouts and arguments as his appearance goes unnoticed.

'Ladies and Gentlemen,' he says, his deep voice suppressing the noise of everyone in the room, and reverberating throughout the great hall. 'If I may have your attention, please?'

The arguments begin to hush as, confused by this ominous sounding announcement that filled the air, the representatives of almost every nation on the planet suddenly realise that there is a stranger among them. Some point in shock, some fall into their seats, and others stare and gape. The caped figure waits for another moment and then speaks again and, again, his voice seems to fill the room.

'My name is Kal-El, and I am the person this General Zod is looking for.'

And it is chaos again, and Kal raises his hand to signal for silence.

'Before we continue, I want Lois Lane released from custody.'

This time there are whispers, and the whispers turned to murmurs and murmurs turned to conversation and conversation turned to shouts. Kal stood at the lectern and waited.

Raising his hand for quiet, the Secretary-General leaned forward and spoke into the mike in front of him: 'Many of us here know who Lois Lane is, Mr El, but she is not in custody.'

Clark shakes his head and speaks again. 'Kal. Please. And she is in custody, at a US base on the outskirts of Metropolis. I am willing to surrender myself to you - to the _world_ - but on the condition that she is released, effective immediately.'

He turns to the huddled group of US representatives and says, 'I'm not here to play games, gentlemen. The fate of the world is at stake, and Lois Lane is an innocent party in this.'

He turns back to face the representatives, all of whom are watching him intently. At the back of the hall, and entering in from the sides, armed security quickly line the walls and some of them raise their weapons and set their sights on him.

'I came to Earth as a baby, sent by my birth parents in a bid to save me from the destruction of their home.' He then repeats what he has said in Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Tagalog and some other languages before one of the representatives stands and says, 'Mr Kal. We appreciate you addressing us collectively and individually. We have translators and I am sure my colleagues will agree when I ask you to continue in one language.'

Kal smiles and continues: 'I was not born on Earth but I have lived my whole life here. This planet is my home, and until recently I did not know exactly where I had come from. I know, and have known for many years, that my existence would be a source of great and varying concern for you all, including the people you each represent.

'For years I have travelled the world and have helped people in secret. Over the last few weeks I have tried to use my abilities to help people more directly.' Around the room many of the representatives are nodding their heads, and some are even smiling. 'I believed that by doing things in a positive way, and by introducing myself to the world slowly, I would be able to avoid creating any fear and distrust.

'I had, until recently, believed I was the last of my kind. We all know, now, that I am not. Unlike the General and his followers, however, Earth is my home, and I have a responsibility to you all.

'I do not know if the General can be trusted, but if it will safeguard Earth and safeguard you all, then I am willing, by the leave of this Council, to give myself over to him. For now, I surrender myself to you and will await your decision.'

Kal steps back and waits. The Secretary-General stands and makes his way towards him. A couple of the security personnel adjust their aim and make themselves ready.

'Some people say that trust is often started with a leap of faith,' says the Secretary-General as he holds out his hand. 'You've taken a leap, and so will I.' They shake hands.

* * *

'You let them cuff you?'

Kal shrugs. 'The Secretary-General told them not to, but the security chief and,' he nods his head at the mirror, 'General Swanwick insisted. Besides, if it makes them comfortable then it's for the best.

'How are you, Lois?'

She smiles. 'I'm fine. Thank you. You've been quite busy lately, haven't you?'

'Well, someone suggested that the world might well be ready, so I figured it might be time to take the next step.'

'There are a lot of thankful people out there, Kal. You've already impacted so many lives.'

'It's why I'm here now, Lois. If I can save everyone then-'

'What's the 'S' for?' interrupts Lois, gesturing at the shield on Kal's chest.

He smiles. 'It's not an 'S'. Where I'm from it means 'Hope'.'

''Hope'. Nice. Well, _here_, it's an 'S'.'

'Is that why you gave me that name?' he asks, grinning.

'Maybe.'

A squeal from a loud speaker interrupts them.


	5. Chapter 5

'Hello, Kal. Or do you prefer 'Clark'? That's the name they gave you, isn't it?' As Clark gets up, Zod continues talking, walking towards him. 'I was Krypton's military leader, your father our foremost scientist. The only thing we agreed on was that Krypton was dying. In return for my efforts to protect our civilization, and save our planet, I and my fellow officers were sentenced to the Phantom Zone. And then the destruction of our world freed us. We were adrift, destined to float amongst the ruins of our planet until we starved.'

Frowning, looking around the Smallville-esque surroundings, Clark asks Zod, 'How did you find your way to earth?'

'We managed to retro fit the phantom projector into our hyper drive. Your father made a similar modification to the craft that brought you here. And so the instrument of our damnation became our salvation. We sought out the old colonial outposts, looking for signs of life. But all we found was death. Cut off from Krypton these outposts withered and died long ago. We salvaged what we could, armour, weapons, even a world engine. For thirty-three years we prepared, until finally we detected a distress beacon, which you triggered when you accessed the ancient scout ship.'

'I'm not sure I understand, General. If you found other scout ships, if you had access to a world engine, then why didn't you use the Genesis Chambers housed in those scout ships?'

Zod glares at Clark, his lips tightening and nose flaring a little. 'We looked for signs of life-'

'That I understand, but, excuse me for my limited knowledge of Kryptonian history, each scout ship had a Genesis Chamber. You could have brought life forward through using one of those, surely?'

Zod takes a deep, relaxing breath, and smiles, sadly. 'If only it were that simple, Kal. On Krypton, the genetic template of every being yet to be born is encoded in the registry of citizens. Your father stole the registry's codex and stored it in the capsule that brought you here.' As he speaks, Clark walks towards the large fence and hops on to one of the posts and sits there.

'Again, General, that doesn't make sense. Why would the scout ships have Genesis Chambers if there was no way of accessing this codex? Surely each chamber was ready and prepared, so all you would have to do is activate one of the ones you found and, hey presto, Krypton lives again!' Clark grins at Zod, his arms out wide.

'You find the fate of your people to be amusing, _El_?' he growls.

'I believe 'El' was what you used to call my father. I am not him.'

'Yet you are clearly his son,' Zod spits, his rage starting to get the better of him.

'You've never needed the codex to restart Krypton or revive our people. You've wanted it for something else, and my father realised that.'

The sky darkens and a shrill whistling can be heard. Clark turns to look and sees a flaming object streak across the sky and smash into the ground. A concussive wave blasts from the impact and a tidal wave of earth erupts and crashes over everything.

'Your father chose this planet as Krypton's new birth place, through you.' The effects of the distant explosion reach the 'farm' and the blast washes over Clark and Zod. The post Clark was sitting on cracks and the fence falls apart and Clark falls to the ground. As he stands up he realises the jeans and t-shirt he had been wearing have shifted into a black version of his blue and red suit.

'If Krypton lives again, what happens to Earth?'

'A foundation has to be built on something, Kal. Even your father recognised that.'

The ground around Clark shifts and he looks down and sees thousands upon thousands of skulls. He looks around and sees thousands more. He begins to sink into them.

'As they say on Earth, 'You are either with us or against us', Kal. Choose wisely.'

Clark sinks into the skulls and struggles against the pull. The black suit shimmers and black and grey shift back and forth to the blue, red, and yellow. Confused, Zod steps forward, frowning. Clark begins to rise out of the skulls and they shimmer and disappear.

'Things are not always black and white, _Dru_. They are not always either or. Often, there is a third way.' The farmhouse disappears and Zod stumbles back, clutching his head.

'How are you..?'

'I've learned many things living on this planet and growing up with my abilities. I've strengthened many things, too, including my will. That's what this was, wasn't it? Your show of dominance over me? I'm telling you again, _General_, there is another option for you. You have a world engine, and I can give you a Genesis Chamber. Find another world but leave this one alone.'

As Clark speaks the farmhouse and countryside are replaced with a barren landscape, which shifts and morphs and shows a strange looking village become a town and then a city, and the architecture now looks like the Kryptonian architecture of old. Clark is back in the red and blue.

'You lead us here, Kal. It's within your power to save what remains of your race!'

'It can be done without turning into monsters.'

Zod roars with rage and rushes at Clark, barrelling into him. Clark falls back and throws him off as they tumble. He flashes forward, grabs the still falling Zod by the ankle, and then tosses him across the landscape.

Zod pushes himself out of the trench his body made from the impact, and he shimmers slightly, his armour appearing for a couple of seconds. Clark stands before him and, again, tries to reason with him. 'Please, General, there are other ways of fulfilling your duty. There is no need to commit genocide.'

'Genocide? Of _insects_? Your time with these people blinds you Kal. Rather than joining me you foolishly choose to stand against me.'

'I stand for what is right, and what you want to do is not right.'

They clash again, tumbling through the nearby power station. Clark, again, throws Zod aside. The skies darken again and we see there is a divide - where Clark stands there is light and green and brightness, and where Zod is there is darkness and clouds.

'This is what you want to do?' Clark asks, gesturing at the ruin and chaos that keeps building up around them and, specifically, around Zod.

'The old must be crushed to make room for the new and the better, Kal. From its ashes Krypton can rise again.'

'Then I have to stop you,' says Clark, through grit death. He takes a step forward and then rushes at Zod.

* * *

The scene shifts and we see Zod choking and prising a hand away from his neck. Behind him, Jax-Ur frantically checks readings and prepares a sedative. A massive hand wraps around Clark's arm and, still woozy, Clark glares at Zod and then lets go of his neck. The hand then pulls Clark's arm back to the table and a new restraint emerges from the metal slab and pins Clark down.

Zod nods at the unseen Kryptonian. 'Thank you, Nam-Ek.' We hear a rumble and the massive hand lets go of Clark's arm. 'You are full of surprises, Kal, much like your father. Much like him.' For a moment, Zod is silent. Watching him, realisation comes to Clark and his eyes widen.

'You killed him?'

'I did. And not a day goes by when it doesn't haunt me. But if I had to do it again, I would. I have a duty to my people, and I will not allow anyone to prevent me from carrying it out.'

Clark struggles against the restraints as Zod and Nam-Ek leave. Jax-Ur, still confused, checks the readings again. Reassuring himself, he then turns his attention back to Clark and smiles.

'You're wasting your efforts. The strength you derived from your exposure to this young sun has been neutralised on our ship. Here, in this environment, you're as weak as a human.'

Clark smiles and flexes his arm again but the restraint holds. 'I know some pretty strong humans, Jax-Ur.' Jax-Ur gapes at him, shocked that Clark knows who he is. He then scowls and extracts some of Clark's blood.

* * *

Elsewhere on the ship, having been flung unceremoniously into a room, Lois is checking out her surroundings. She looks at the command key Clark gave to her and then looks at the control panel at the far wall.

'There is no need to use the key, Ms Lane,' the Jor-conscience says, suddenly appearing before her. 'I uploaded myself on to this ship a while ago as a back-up plan. Kal and I did not anticipate you being here, and I apologise for the invasion my people committed on your mind and your privacy.'

'You…who?'

'I am Kal's father. We have a plan, but first I must get you to safety.'

'How?'

The Jor-conscience smiles. 'I designed this ship, and it knows me.'

On the bridge, proximity alarms go off, warning of an incoming attack. The Kryptonians manning the bridge look at each other with confusion: there's nothing out there. Another alarm goes off warning of intrusion in the bay area.

The female Kryptonian who had put Lois in the room is lying on the floor, unconscious. 'You won't need it, but please retrieve her firearm,' the Jor-conscience instructs Lois. Lois looks at him quizzically as she takes the gun and steps over the woman. 'I adjusted the local environment and rendered her unconscious. Better that than risk a clash and you getting hurt, Miss Lane.' Lois smiles at the hologram and says thanks.

'This way,' he gestures. 'I have an escape pod ready and have programmed it to set down at the Kent farm. It's there that the command key you have will be useful.' Lois nods and hurries after the Jor-conscience.

* * *

As the alarms ring and Jax-Ur looks around in confusion, Clark tugs at the restraints, grinning. They snap and he rises from the table and casually shrugs. 'Time's up,' he says, and there's a blur and Jax-Ur, still gaping with fear and confusion, finds himself restrained on the metal slab.

'I've sent her to Smallville,' says the Jor-conscience, appearing before Kal.

'Thank you.'

'This isn't how it was meant to be, Kal. Bringing back Krypton itself was…through you your mother and I hoped there would be…unity and diversity. You've seen what Zod wants to do, you know why I could never side with him.'

Clark smiles and nods.

'You- Kal, you must get to Smallville now.'

'Lois?'

'No, your…your mother. Go.'

* * *

There is a series of sonic booms as Clark streaks into the farmland and then punches Zod clear across the fields. The Kryptonians step back as the ground cracks and Clark comes to a stop, his cape billowing around him.

'This is what you do? _This_ is what Kryptonians do?' he spits, disgusted.

Faora holds out a hand and Nam-Ek stops in his tracks. 'We have a duty to our people, Kal. A duty that can be fulfilled here on Earth.'

'At the expense of another race? Another planet? Is that what the explorers of old did? Expand Kryptonian civilization at the expense of others?'

'You do not understand. We are all that is left. We need the Codex to-'

'Commander, are you seriously telling me that in all the years of searching, all the outposts and colonies you found, there were no Genesis Chambers left? That you salvaged weapons and armour and supplies, and even a world engine, but no Genesis Chambers?'

Faora looks at him, confusion in her eyes. 'The General…every time…he said they were…he said they did not work. That we needed to find you.'

'And I suppose Jax-Ur agreed with him?' Clark turns away, not dismissively but in order to observe a speck in the distance. Zod is leaping through the air, an eighth of a mile at a time.

'You do not know me, and you have no reason to trust me, but each of you, I'm sure,' he touches his chest, 'knows what this symbol stands for.

'I don't know what Zod has been telling you all these years, and I don't know what his plans were back on Krypton, but I beg you: leave Earth and its people alone.'

'Or?' rumbles Nam-Ek.

Clark looks up at the towering Kryptonian. 'Or I will fight you until my last breath and you will lose, and any hope of reviving Krypton will be gone, too.'

Clark turns to Martha and helps her up.

'You feel for them?' Faora asks as she watches him and Martha.

'Yes. And _not_ like pets. This isn't sentimental idiocy, Commander. It's respect.' He again looks past her and Zod is much closer now, still leaping through the air. 'My father told me Kryptonians were bred for specific roles, specific purposes. I _understand_ that yours is to protect Krypton, but this isn't the way to do it. General Zod's way is not the way to do it.'

Dust fills the air and the Kryptonians look around themselves, wondering where Clark and Martha have disappeared to. Just as suddenly, he is back before them again.

'There is a Genesis Chamber on Earth. It works. It has been dormant for thousands of years but it works.'

A roar fills the air and Zod slams into Kal.


	6. Chapter 6

At the edge of the Kent farmland, Martha looks up at the sky. She squints, uses her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, and waits. High in the sky, the escape pod containing Lois heads to Earth, the on-board systems igniting its small rocket-like engines, adjusting the speed of the pod's descent and its direction.

'Miss Lane, my son is a little…occupied at the moment, so it falls to you to initiate the next stage in the plan.'

Fighting an urge to hyperventilate Lois nods repeatedly and says 'Okay.'

'In three minutes, this pod will land at the end of the Kent farm. The systems on board the Black Zero tell me that Kal has left Mrs Kent there. I am confident she will be willing to help you.

'Kal is fighting Zod and his soldiers. For now, while they wear their armour, the advantage is his, but if they decide to remove their armour then each one will instantly gain the same strength, speed, and resilience as Kal.'

'Oh my God!'

* * *

The earth cracks and shakes, and the air rumbles with the sounds and concussive effects of explosion after explosion. Breathing a little heavy, Zod stalks the edge of the 'event horizon' where he, Faora, and two other soldiers wait. He turns, flexing his armoured fingers, and watches the chaotic scene before them, his visor filtering through the dust and debris filled air and giving him a clear view.

Nam-Ek pounds into the ground, his massive fists are like jack hammers. Four other armoured Kryptonians hold down Clarks arms and legs as Nam-Ek punches and punches and punches. The crater they are in heaves and shifts and the ground opens up and they all fall, but Nam-Ek keeps punching and the others keep holding.

A massive blast of heat vision suddenly knocks Nam-Ek's armoured head back and the momentary pause in his jack-hammer punching is enough for Clark to pull all his limbs in. The two soldiers who had been holding his legs down slam into either side of Nam-Ek, and the two who had been holding down his arms slam into each other. Clark then kicks out and knocks Nam-Ek out of crater and over at the onlooking Kryptonians.

As Zod moves to the side his visor replays what he just saw and he mutters, 'fire from his eyes…'

Clark stands up, his legs a little shaky, and looks at Faora and the others. Faora frowns as she sees the cuts and bruises and blood on Clark's face. The two soldiers standing with her raise their weapons.

'I give you one more chance to change your mind, Kal. Give me the Codex and stand by my side. You cannot survive if you stand against us.'

'I seem to be doing okay, General,' replies Clark as he wipes away the blood on his cheek. His face is covered with deep cuts from Nam-Ek's armoured fists, and his right eye is swollen.

'Stupid. Stupid. You think I _want_ you dead? As sullied and corrupt as these people have made you, you _are_ a Kryptonian, Kal. One of us. One of my-'

'Citizens? Not at the cost of this world, Zod.'

'Fire at will,' orders Zod, turning away from the crater. The two soldiers fire energy beams at Clark, knocking him back from the centre of the crater to the far side of it, embedding him into the broken rock and soil. Smoke trails from his chest and his head slumps forward.

* * *

Martha walks over to the hissing escape pod, and holds out her hand. She smiles at a memory. 'Cool to the touch. Just like last time.' There is a sound of gas being released and the pod opens. Lois clambers out, her legs shaking a little from the ride, and she laughs nervously as she catches sight of Martha.

'The guy's like some kind of uber-planner, isn't he?' she says as she accepts Martha's helping hand.

'Who is?'

'Jor-El.'

Martha smiles. 'Jonathan always said that Clark's real father sent him here for a reason.'

They hear a rumble and look towards the farm in the distance. As they walk away from the pod they feel the earth shake a little. Repeatedly. A cloud of dust starts to rise.

'Clark…' Martha breathes, her eyes wide.

'He's going to be fine, Mrs Kent. He's going to be fine.'

* * *

As Nam-Ek leaps back from where Clark had kicked him to, Zod leaps over and into the ruined barn in order to examine Kal's rocket.

'It _has_ to be here.'

Cautiously, Faora approaches him. 'General, there is a Chamber, surely-'

'The Chamber is useless without the Codex. The bloodlines are tainted.'

'Tainted?'

Ignoring her, Zod turns away from the rocket, his eyes flitting from side to side as he comes to a conclusion. 'The Earth woman. She conspired with her mate to hide Kal's origins from him…_she_ must know where the codex is. She must have hidden it from him.'

Zod leaps into the air, high above the barn, and uses his visor's systems to scan the farm. In the distance, he catches sight of Martha and Lois. He falls back to the ground, lands and leaps away again.

As he leaps he gives an order: 'Scorched earth, Commander.'

Faora, readying herself to leap after him, pauses. 'Sir?'

'The town. Scorched earth.'

* * *

Nam-Ek rolls his shoulders and steps into the crater. The two soldiers who shot Clark watch Zod leap away and then stand to attention as they hear Faora's voice over the communications system. The other four Kryptonians in the crater pick themselves up, looking at Kal warily. The six of them then turn towards Smallville and leap into the air. Nam-Ek saunters towards Kal's unconscious body, his fingers flexing.

Faora suddenly lands in front of him, her eyes flashing with anger. 'Go, Nam-Ek. That's an _order_.'

The massive Kryptonian crouches for a moment and then leaps after the others. Faora turns and looks at Kal, his face still cut and bruised but no longer bleeding. Her eyes fall on the shield on his chest.

'Hope,' she whispers. 'Yet hope is not always there, Little El. It's not always there.' She leaps into the air, too, leaving Kal partly buried in the crater.

* * *

A police car pulls over the edge of the field and two officers get out. They had been on their way to the Kent farm after receiving reports of explosions, but the smoke coming from the field caught their attention.

'Is there anyone here?' asked the driver as he edged closer to the wall of brush, his hand resting on his gun. His partner slowly approaches from the other side of the car. The ground shakes a little and they look at each other, curious and concerned. The ground shakes again.

'Whitney? Is that you?'

'Mrs Kent? Are you in there?'

Martha pushes aside the brush and makes her way through to the road. 'You boys shouldn't be here.'

'Mrs Kent, there have been reports of explosions…and the ground.'

'Everything's going to be fine, Whitney. You go on and head back into town.' There's a loud boom, and the three of them look at the field fearfully.

'What…what's going on?' There's another boom, and it sounds much closer.'

Lois suddenly pushes herself out of the brush, her eyes wide. 'It's Zod!' There's another boom and the police car shakes.

Spotting the gun in Lois' hand, Whitney draws his and readies himself. 'Put the gun down on the ground, Miss Lane.'

'You know her?' Martha asks. There's another boom and the four of them desperately try to keep standing.

'We have to get away from here!' Lois urges, ignoring Whitney's instruction. 'He's _leaping_ towards us.'

'EARTH WOMAN!' roars Zod, as he leaps one more time and catches sight of them.

* * *

_'It's Zod.'_

_Boom._

_'Put the gun down on the ground, Miss Lane.'_

_'You know her?'_

_Boom._

_'We have to get away from here! He's leaping towards us!'_

_'EARTH WOMAN!'_

Embedded in the crater, Clark snaps awake and suddenly stands upright, the mass of earth heaving and shifting like crumbling biscuits. He staggers a little and then steadies himself. The wounds on his face have faded.

'Ma.'

The air fills with dust.

* * *

As Martha and Lois dive to the side of the car, Whitney and his partner fire at Zod. The bullets bounce off his armour and he ignores them and stalks towards Martha and Lois.

'You will tell me where you have hidden the Codex.'

'I told you, I don't know what you're talking about!' Martha crawls backwards, terrified.

A blast of energy hits Zod in the face and he roars with pain. There's another blast, and then another, and he tries to shield his face with his armoured arms.

Lois stands in front of Martha, the Kryptonian weapon in her hand sizzling as she readies for another round. There's a sonic boom, and a red, blue, and purple streak, and a gust of wind, and Zod is gone.

The four of them sit on the floor, stunned, when the police-radio interrupts the eerie silence:

_All officers…Emergency…all_

And the radio is silent.


	7. Chapter 7

Zod's head snaps back repeatedly as Clark, for once in his life, unleashes his rage.

'You think,' he punches, 'you can threaten,' another punch, 'my mother!?' the third punch is so hard that Zod's armour tears in Clark's left hand and his body ploughs into another field. Hovering in mid-air, Clark looks deep into the earth below Zod and then, spinning, he drives himself feet first into him. The earth heaves and a crater even deeper than the one on the Kent farm suddenly opens up. Water pours in and Zod, his visor spritzing ,coughs, splutters, and rages. Clark punches him again and, arms wide, spins at an incredible speed, creating some kind of muddy vortex. The vortex suspends Zod in mid-air and layers of mud begin to slather on to him. Clark's eyes flash red and he fires bursts of heat vision at the mud ball Zod is being encased in. Within moments a massive ball of solid earth rests in the middle of the crater.

There is a boom and Clark disappears from sight.

* * *

Eight Kryptonians make their way along Smallville's High Street. Their visors hum and flash various bits of information:

Power lines, gas mains, occupants, structural faults, and a whole range of strategic data is available to them.

'Scorched earth,' rumbles Nam-Ek as he grabs a truck and, like an athlete throwing a discus, he tosses it. The truck smashes into the top of a building and explodes. He grabs another vehicle and then pauses as something in the distance catches his eye: fighter jets. He adjusts his grip and begins to spin. His armour moans and then, with a roar, he releases the vehicle, skipping as he tries to regain his footing, and then watches it arc into the sky. It tumbles in the air and flies past the town limits, but then begins to fall, and falls far short of the oncoming planes.

Nam-Ek roars and tears at his armour. The other Kryptonians look at him fearfully but Faora steps in front of him, fury in her eyes, and orders him to stop. He tears off his helmet and pulls at the atmosphere synthesiser.

'Power,' he growls. 'Jax-Ur told me.'

'Stand down, Nam-Ek!'

He pulls off the filters and sensors and roars. His eyes flash red for a moment and then he grins, steps past Faora, raises his huge arms into the air, and slams them into the ground. The road heaves and the shockwave knocks over the Kryptonians behind him. Cracks explode and chunks of the road are thrown into the air; cars and trucks flip like metallic versions of a dandelion's pappus. Some slam into each other and then crash onto the broken road, others end up careening into shopfronts. Telephone posts lurch and fall and water starts spraying into the air. Dozens of occupants scream in terror as the floors of their shops and stores crack and shift, rows of shelving fall to the ground, and ceilings fall in. On the main road, more people cling to the sides of buildings as masonry falls. There are screams and shouts, and there is terror.

A strange noise fills the air and girders suddenly appear, shoring up various buildings, and torn power lines stop sparking. Nam-Ek, still grinning, stands straighter and raises his arms again. He then stops when he sees Clark standing in front of him.

'Stop this. Please,' he pleads.

'Scorched earth. General's orders,' and Nam-Ek's brings his fists down in order repeat the devastation. The air rumbles with the sound of a massive explosion, and chunks of asphalt leap into the air and dust clouds rise up. Obscured in the cloud, a growling can be heard, and as the dust disperses Clark can be seen holding back the behemoth's fists. He suddenly kicks out at Nam-Ek's leg before changing his grip on his wrists and pulling him up into the air. He spins the Kryptonian and tosses him over to the abandoned quarry several miles away.

Blasts of energy slam into his back and he tumbles through the air and lands, hard, into the ground. The road explodes over and over again as the fighter jets fire at the Kryptonians. A couple of the Kryptonians shield their faces against the barrage, and one of them gets knocked back into a truck. As they ready themselves to attack, Clark is in front of them again.

'This is not the Kryptonian way, and you cannot convince me otherwise. Our people studied, preserved, and expanded. The Kryptonian army defended Krypton but it never sought to commit genocide.'

'Stand aside, Little El,' warns Faora as she shifts into a fighting stance.

'Please. These people have done nothing to you. This isn't right.'

On the Black Zero the control room and its dozens of corridors display what is happening in Smallville. They all hear Kal-El and they all see him.

Across the world, just as millions saw and heard Zod's broadcast, millions see and hear the Battle of Smallville.

'They attack us, Little El.'

'Because you attacked _them_.'

'What is it that these humans say? To get at the honey sometimes the bees must be killed?'

'I think you lost a few things in translation, Commander.'

The Kryptonians on board watch in silence as the human forces rally to defend the small town. They watch as Faora fights, her skills clearly outmatching Kal's. They watch as Nam-Ek leaps into the air, higher than he ever had before; and they watch as Kal-El repeatedly steps in front of energy blasts targeting buildings.

Humans watch as seemingly impossible feats of durability, speed, and strength tear up the streets and buildings. Some wonder if maybe this is all some publicity stunt for a new movie, others wonder about it being one of a range of conspiracies. All see this 'Superman' repeatedly stand before these armoured aliens and stop them harming any trapped or cornered humans.

'Isolate the transmissions. _End _this infernal broadcast!' Jax-Ur orders his team. They look at each other in dismay, their systems not responding to their commands. The Black Zero is like some satellite dedicated to broadcasting the battle.

Over in Shuster's field, the mudball begins to crack. One of the small Kryptonian ships lands beside it and two Kryptonians take it on board.

A brief view from the sky shows that occupants of various buildings have taken advantage of Clark's 'line in the sand' and are fleeing from the rear exits. The Black Zero's scan of Nam-Ek suddenly spikes in its readings and Jax-Ur leans forward to observe a little more carefully.

Kal lands an uppercut on Faora, sending her flying back through the air to the other end of the long street, and leaving him open to attack from the other Kryptonians on the ground, who have now discarded their energy weapons and have opted to dog-pile him instead. Faora flips and lands gracefully, smiling and readying herself to join the fight again.

A massive blast of heat vision slams into the fighting Kryptonians and, instantly, the area of the High Street is engulfed in flames. Nam-Ek arcs through the air, fire pouring from his eyes. Asphalt and tarmac melt, cars explode, buildings crumble, and the wide beam of heat keeps hitting. Water mains burst and the water instantly vaporises.

The beam 'narrows' as Nam-Ek falls back to earth, and, as it narrows, the burnt areas look smooth and almost glass-like. Missiles tear through the air, but Nam-Ek pays them no attention. They slam into him and explode and stray beams of heat vision cut through the sky. He tumbles and falls, slamming into a train depot.

'Guardian, this is Thunder Two-Two. We've knocked the big one out of the sky.'

At the edge of the fiery crater Faora watches as Kal-El straightens himself. She frowns as she sees that he had shielded two of his attackers, and then snarls when she sees the other four writhing in agony as their armour has seared into their flesh. Kal stumbles as waves of heat emanate from him and his every step sizzles on the smooth ground. Beyond them the helicopter occupied by Colonel Hardy spins out of control - it had been hit by one of Nam-Ek's stray beams.

A soldier falls from the helicopter and Clark blows on his hand and rushes to catch him. 'Are you okay?' he asks, as he puts the soldier on the ground. Breathless and grateful, the soldier nods and then his eyes widen and he reaches for his gun. One of the Kryptonians Clark had shielded from Nam-Ek's blast punches Clark and then rushes at him to further his attack. Clark blows at him and the Kryptonian slows and struggles against the wind battering at him. His armour, still hot, sizzles and cracks as the hurricane-like wind shifts and the temperature lowers.

The rescued soldier gapes at the ice statue and then watches as Clark leaps up to rescue the falling chopper. The soldier yells and falls to the ground, shielding his head, as a massive locomotive engine slams into Clark and drives him into a building.

Seeing an opening, soldiers fire at Faora as she looks out over the smouldering crater. She glares at them before leaping towards them and engaging them in swift and brutal combat.

As Hardy struggles to free himself from his crashed chopper a pilot radios in. 'Guardian, do you read? Thunder One-Two calling Guardian. Guardian, do you read?'

'Thunder One-Two, this is Guardian. I want you to put down everything you've got on my position.' He looks over at the writhing and moaning Kryptonians in the still sizzling crater and then up at the sky at the leaping Nam-Ek. 'Everything. This is danger close.'

'Copy, danger close. Good luck, sir.'

Hardy shoots at Faora, emptying the gun. She looks at him, bemused, and stalks forward. He pulls out his handgun and empties that on her, too. He pulls out his knife and she smiles, nods, and then draws hers.

Laughter fills the air as Nam-Ek falls towards the fallen chopper. The locomotive shifts and suddenly flips over and Clark zooms out, grabs the huge Kryptonian, and punches his face. There is a loud explosive sound followed by a chilling scream.

Hardy and Faora watch as Clark twists and throws Nam-Ek's unconscious body into the crater. They then face each other and ready themselves.

'A good death is its own reward.'

She lunges and Clark slams into her, knocking her away from Hardy. He flips and uses his hands to bring himself to a stop.

Faora's environment synthesiser fritzs like Zod's did before. Disoriented, she shakes her head and focuses on Kal as he walks towards her. 'Krypton can live again,' he says, a tiredness in his voice, 'and I can and will help you, but not at the cost of this world.'

'You will not win. For every human you save we will kill a million more.'

'Look around you, Commander. This isn't what you want.'

Dozens of missiles fill the sky and Faora turns her back on Kal and readies herself for the impact. Things suddenly shift into slow motion as Clark looks at her and then at the fallen soldiers. In the blink of an eye, the human soldiers disappear. Hardy closes his eyes, waiting for the inevitable, and the ground explodes.

As the jets and gunships bank, a Kryptonian ship streaks in, massive and hulking, and firing dispersal blasts, clipping two of the aircraft. It hovers above the impact site and its exhausts disperse the flames and reveal Faora, Nam-Ek, and the other Kryptonians are unconscious.

The one Clark had frozen stumbles around, disoriented, before accepting the help of one of the newly arrived Kryptonians. Two of them struggle with Nam-Ek's body, but they make short work of the retrieval and then fly away.

The bank vault safe that Faora had thrown Clark into earlier creaks open and, inside, are Clark, Hardy, and a more than a dozen soldiers.

Clark looks up through the bank building. He looks tired. He turns and looks at the soldiers. 'I'm sorry.'

He steps out and looks around for a moment. 'We still have work to do, Colonel. Let's get these men some medical attention and then we can talk.'

Hardy nods and radios in.


	8. Chapter 8

On the Black Zero, Zod and the others storm (and stagger) into the control room. Zod is still caked in mud but it is coming off. Behind him, Nam-Ek shoves aside the two Kryptonians who were trying to help him, sending them flying back and slamming into walls and consoles. He holds his broken jaw and glares at Jax-Ur. Faora, still groggy, cautiously watches Zod while a few Kryptonians hurry over to help the four burnt ones who are being carried in.

'What happened down there?' Jax-Ur asks as he hurries over to Zod. Several of the Kryptonians who had remained on the Black Zero stare at him for a moment, knowing full well that he, and they, had seen and heard everything.

Zod looks up at the various display screens and shrugs off more mud. 'He exposed a temporary weakness.'

Jax-Ur stands a little straighter and smiles. 'It is of little consequence. I have located the codex.' Zod looks at him, his eyes wide and gleaming, and the hint of a smile breaking on his face. 'It was never in capsule,' Jax-Ur continues. Zod frowns, confused. 'Jor-El took the codex, the genetic make-up for a billion people, and he bonded it within his son's cellular structure. Folded in and repeating endlessly, all of Krypton's heirs, living, hidden in one refugee's body.'

Zod muses over this revelation for a moment and whispers, ''_I have held that hope_', that mad genius.' He steps over to Jax-Ur, the flashes of Kal's recorded activities prior to the Battle of Smallville catching his attention for a couple of seconds, and then asks, 'Does Kal-El need to be alive for us to extract the codex from his cells?'

Jax-Ur's gaze moves over some of the other Kryptonians in the room, including Faora. She shifts slightly, her eyes curious and fearful. 'No.'

Zod nods, steps over to another display screen, and begins to look over and analyse the footage again - there is nothing being shown from the Battle of Smallville. 'He's stronger than you anticipated he would be.' He looks over at Nam-Ek. 'He broke the strongest of us. He healed from his injuries and seemed all the stronger for them. You assured me that we would be his equals.'

'His _betters_. He is untrained. He fights by instinct-'

'He fights with honour,' interrupts Faora, the grogginess pushed aside as an understanding of what is being proposed ignites defiance within her.

'He fights against Krypton!' spits Zod. 'Against us. He ignores all that we've suffered, and all those years of wandering the stars lost and homeless.'

'We can bring things back to our advantage,' soothes Jax-Ur. He waves a hand and opens another display, this one showing the world engine and highlighting data from when Kal had been held in the examination room earlier. 'Kryptonian atmospherics. Nam-Ek had been able to hurt him because he hadn't fully recovered from the exposure on the ship-' Zod looks at Jax-Ur curiously and Jax-Ur blanches a little and quickly opens another display.

'I took the initiative to upload the data from his armour - from all your amour - as you arrived, General.' The display shows Nam-Ek's armoured fists cutting into Kal's face. 'In using the world engine we not only eliminate the boy's advantages against us but we also put ourselves in the position to reform this world as our own.'

'General,' interrupts Faora, again. 'Jax-Ur said before that the sun here is not conducive for our environment - using the world engine serves us no purpose.'

'Jax-Ur?'

'Sir?'

'What do you think of these concerns?'

'I've done the calculations, General. With the parameters adjusted accordingly, the world engine can mould this planet into one which is similar to Krypton but with an environment suitable for our new needs.'

'Release the world engine,' orders Zod.

Faora steps in front of Zod, respectfully keeping her distance. 'General, please. You are taking the advice of the man who destroyed Wegthor.' The Black Zero shifts slightly as the world engine is released.

'Krypton will be born again, Commander. It would be best that you accept that…or find yourself relieved of your duties.'

Faora bows her head slightly, steps back, and says, 'Yes, General.'

Jax-Ur looks at her, bemused, and then walks over to his small team. 'General, have you chosen a site for the world engine?

'He surrendered himself to this world. He gave himself to this world and betrayed Krypton. Let the city of his surrender be the first to fall.'

Jax-Ur smiles and moves to enter the coordinates but Zod holds up his hand. 'No, the city will fall under my supervision and under this ship. I want his _people_ to know they die because of him. I want those-' he points at the displays of footage from the last few weeks, 'to know that their 'hero' is nothing of the kind.'

Jax-Ur nods. 'Understood, sir.' He glances up at a hologram of the Earth and Metropolis is marked up on it. The systems then show a point in the waters of South East Asia.

* * *

Observation stations around the world start to raise various alarms and contact various high-ranking military personnel. Blocked to the media for now, dozens of command centres watch as the Black Zero and world engine separate. Thousands of calculations are run, and dozens of scenarios are put forward as to what this action means. The two objects 'hover' in orbit.

* * *

Zod turns and addresses the gathered Kryptonians: 'Kal-El will now have to make a choice. He already abandoned us, and now we will see which of these people he will abandon. Regardless of his choice, it's clear he will try to stop us.' Zod begins to pace the floor of the command room. 'For decades we have roamed the stars and tried to find a place to call home. Providence guided us here, to this world. A world we can make our own. A world with a Genesis Chamber and the world where the Codex was hidden. We wandered for years but now we have found home.'

Zod gestures at the displays and then at himself. 'We have found a world where we can be better. We can finally rest. Where we can finally rebuild Krypton. In order to build this world…' he pauses and turns slowly, looking at each and every Kryptonian gathered there. 'In order to build this world we will have to make the greatest of sacrifices. Kal-El will try to stop us, and we have the means to prevent that, but there is no guarantee those who choose to stand against him will survive.'

He points at the area highlighted in South East Asia. 'Here is where we will send the world engine, and it is here that the greatest danger will be.' He gestures at Nam-Ek, 'Some of you have seen the abilities we can be granted on this world,' Nam-Ek straightens and stands tall. 'But there, by the world engine, those abilities are not guaranteed. If Kal-El chooses to try to stop the world engine we will need volunteers to stand against him.'

Nam-Ek steps forward. A couple of the Kryptonians look at him, and then over at Zod and then at the displays, and then they step forward, too.

'Should you fall, I swear to you that I will ensure that every Kryptonian from this day forward will know of you and your sacrifices. I will ensure that each of your Houses will be honoured for time immemorial.' They all nod and bow. Zod turns to Jax-ur and gestures for him to begin. Jax-Ur keys in the coordinates and World Engine's thrusters ignite.

* * *

The World Engine adjusts its course and propels intself towards Earth. The sky brightens as the gases of the atmosphere heat up, unable to 'move' out of the way of the massive object as it tears through the air at more than twenty five times the speed of sound. Its burning entry is visible to the naked eye down on Earth, and a trail of flame can be seen tearing across the sky. It adjusts its angle again and begins to open, the 'legs' shifting and preparing, and the 'fire' of the atmosphere disappearing as the World Engine harnesses the energies around it and provides itself with more power.

For miles upon miles it's as if the sky is screaming, and when the waves of displacement hit the ocean's waters schools of fish scatter in panic and confusion. The world engine adjusts itself again and the 'legs' move once more, preparing for impact.

There is another 'scream' as the behemoth's speed triples and then it slams into the earth. A massive tidal wave of dirt and rock and flora and fauna erupts, but beyond that, and below, pulses of energy are emitted from its legs and machine sinks deeper. The pulses temporarily liquify the earth's mantle, allowing the machine to get better purchase; but the pulses also affect the waters and combine with the tidal wave of earth and water crashing before them.

The concussive force of the machine's landing cracks the ocean floor and, for hundreds of miles, the various energies from the impact have killed millions of sea creatures in an instant.

Thousands of miles away from the point of impact, a massive and muscled man leaps from the waters of the Atlantic as he competes against a couple of dolphins. His laughter is suddenly cut short as his neck snaps back from some kind of invisible impact and he falls back into the water unconscious.

Across the world various ports are closing up and hundreds of barriers are being raised. Alarms are ringing and every kind of ship out at sea, whether freight or cruise or military or any other, is being hailed and warned.

On an island in an uncharted area birds and animals fly and run in panic. In a stable, terrified horses kick and neigh until a tall woman dressed in white rushes in and gestures and talks to them soothingly. Elsewhere on the island, observers see the sky shimmer as a previously invisbile dome or shield reacts to the destructive energies of the World Engine's impact.

In the Northcomm centre, Dr Hamilton and his team stare at the readings in shock.

'It's like Chicxulub, isn't it?' whispers one. No one answers him, and no one sees Hamilton run from the room.

* * *

'The key is the Phantom Drive on their ship. The radiations they have been exposed to over the years-'

'They're _radioactive?!_' interrupts General Swanwick.

'Not in the conventional sense, no.' Clark pauses for a moment and looks at the senior officers and diplomats from dozens of countries that are all with him in the room. 'They're basically attuned to the Phantom Zone. Although they've been in our plane of existence for most of their lives they have also been within range of their Phantom Drive for more than three decades. My Phantom Drive can push them all back, including their ship.'

Clark looks up, a flash of fear and worry clouding his face, and a dozen men, including Hamilton, rush in, each heading to their respective general and commanding officer. Clark looks around the room, his head tilting and turning and his eyes flashing various colours, and then he stands and waits, bracing for the next set of questions that are about to come. Swanson snatches the piece of paper the young officer had handed to him and turns to Clark. 'Explain,' he demands, and the room begins to go quiet. The lower-ranking officers step back and the senior officers seem to surround Clark.

'It's called a World Engine. It's designed and programmed to...to terraform a planet . To change it and make it like Krypton.'

'How?'

'It...there's no fixed way. For us, for Earth, it would mean increasing the mass of the planet by basically breaking down its molecular structure bit by bit and rebuilding it. It would mean increasing Earth's gravity to more than thirty times what it is supposed to be.'

'But,' interrupts Dr Hamilton, 'Jupiter is only two and a half times-'

'Exactly. I _have_ to stop the World Engine.'

'And what's to stop this Zod and his people from attacking elsewhere while you're occupied?' asks one of the other generals.

'Indeed, our weapons have done almost nothing to them,' says another.

'Yes, even you, with your great speed, cannot be in two places at once.'

'They can be burned, though, these Kryptonians,' Hamilton says, tentatively.

'At temperatures that turned the earth into glass,' Clark protests. 'In a populated area-'

'Collateral damage. Acceptable collateral damage,' says another.

'No. No, that is _not_ acceptable.' His hands have been holding on to the large table and cracks begin to appear in it.

'He is right, we cannot risk what happened in Smallville to happen somewhere more populated,'

'We also can't risk letting the world engine do its task,' Clark argues. 'For now, the Black Zero is not wholly theirs. The world engine still isn't active-'

'Still not active?' splutters Hamilton. 'It just created a crater more than fifty miles wide and nearly five miles deep and _it's not yet active?!_'

Clark looks at him, his eyes pleading. 'I can cushion some of what will happen on my way to the world engine. On the ground, though, that's what you need to coordinate. All of you.' He points at the large digital map showing the area where the world engine landed. 'By now,' he says, as he draws a large circle onto the screen, 'this will be the range of the tidal waves. The tsunamis. I can approach them from here and counter them, weaken them, but then it will be up to you,' he points at a couple of men huddled together, 'to make sure the ships come home and people are safe.' They nod at their juniors, who quickly leave the room, and begin scribbling further instructions.

He gestures at the other side of the circle. 'I can then come around from here and counter them again, and-'

'We understand,' says a suited diplomat. 'It will be done.'

* * *

Jax-Ur approaches Zod, who is watching over a different screen – one on which the ancient scout ship is displayed. He swallows nervously and then speaks to the General: 'Something is preventing us from marrying up to the world engine. We cannot send the proper signals-'

'Faora, take command,' he says, turning away from the display screen and from Jax-Ur.

'Yes, sir.'

'I need to secure the Genesis Chamber and pay my respects to an old friend.'


	9. Chapter 9

A wall of water more than a kilometer high obscures the sky on the western side of Indonesia. Although miles away from the oncoming wall, fishermen signal each other in terror. Many of them have lived through earthquakes and have seen and experienced tsunamis and massive waves, but this is something that is wholly beyond them.

The still dark sky lightens with flashes and bursts of red piercing the wall of water at hundreds of points in seconds. There is the sound of a boom as something high in the sky and unseen passes the fishermen. It's almost as if the sky and the water are battling each other.

'I can do this,' says Clark to himself through grit teeth. He banks to the right and pushes himself to move faster. He approaches the wall of water, rapid bursts of heat vision striking it, and then he turns to fly alongside it, the air 'rippling' in his wake and knocking back parts of the wall. He then takes a deep breath and dives into the ocean, repeating the process against the even denser wall of water down below.

From Indonesia and round towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and up to Sri Lanka and India proper, he flies and dives back and forth, forcing the wall of water to slowly, bit by bit, collapse in on itself. Every so often his eyes flit towards the distant Black Zero but it remains in orbit, silent.

* * *

As Zod approaches the door to the scout ship he speaks into his communications relay: 'Nam-Ek, you and the others are to attend to the World Engine. Do whatever you must.'

On the Black Zero, Nam-Ek and the Kryptonian volunteers step away and leave the command centre. Moments later, three small ships fly out of the launch bay and head to Earth.

Zod looks towards the sun, squinting as he challenges its bright light. He closes his eyes and smiles at the red light he can now see. He turns to the door, reaches out a hand, and pushes. There is a slight hiss as the door opens and he frowns in disgust as his visor shows him that the air inside the ship is not of a Kryptonian environment.

As he steps in, a robot hovers up and approaches him. He turns to it and says, 'I am General Dru-Zod of the House of Zod. I claim this ship for the sake of Krypton. You will lead me to the Genesis Chamber.'

The robot is silent.

Zod holds out his Command Key, brandishing it. 'Take me to the Genesis Chamber.'

The robot rises a little more and then opens. Zod's eyes light up with some sort of delight.

'Ha!' He lunges at the robot and ploughs his armoured fist into it. Tentacles spring out and lash at him, clanging against his armour. He shields his head with his free hand and kicks at the robot, freeing his other hand. It falls back and careens into the wall. Multi-coloured sparks spritz away in the hole Zod has made in the robot but they begin to fade and then stop. The robot rises back up, the cavity quickly being repaired. Zod looks to either side of him and sees more robots approaching. He shifts his stance, raises both his arms above this head, almost crossing them at his wrists, and then pulls them down and wide to his side, two blades unsheathing as he does so.

* * *

Finally, after almost an hour of flying back and forth across thousands of miles, the wall of water is considered 'manageable'. Clark hovers in the air, his cape drenched and hanging heavy behind him, and looks out over the part he hasn't yet tackled – the part that will, in a few hours' time, reach Mauritius, Reunion, and the east coast of Madagascar. His intervention around Indonesia has safeguarded the north-west and western part of Australia, as well as Kerguelen and Heard Island, and the Seychelles and Somalia, but Madagascar and parts of Eastern Africa are still vulnerable.

He turns his gaze to the epicenter of all the chaos and the origin of the would-be wall of destruction, and zooms in on the quiet World Engine. Two small Kryptonian ships circle it, but his eye catches Nam-Ek sitting on the machine, waiting.

He looks up and soars into the air, his arms wide, soaking in the sun, and then he adjusts his flight and heads towards the remaining 'wall of water'. In the quieter waters behind him, warships and aircraft carriers are gathering and the armed forces from different nations are joining forces. Their target: the World Engine.

* * *

'The General is not the man he once was. Our roles as protectors and defenders of Krypton are no longer what they were. General Zod is no longer fit for duty and I stand against him in defence of this world.'

'My dear Faora,' says Jax-Ur, a broad smile on his face. 'Such treasonous talk from such a loyal soldier.' He turns to the other Kryptonians, 'My brothers and sisters, it seems the one who is not who they once were is Commander Ul. Perhaps one cannot fault her, after all these years of wandering the stars, but as the General has said, we now have this planet and we can now have Krypton again.'

Faora unsheaths her short sword and adjusts into a fighting stance.

'General?' calls out Jax-Ur. There is no reply. Jax-Ur repeats the call and, again, there is silence. 'It seems we have lost communication with our leader. With his second in command now actively betraying him I put myself forward and relieve her of her duties. Arrest her.'

Two soldiers step forward, watching her nervously. They reach for their bladed weapons, too – the command centre being one part of the ship where energy-based weapons are neutralised. 'Commander, please come willingly.'

Five others step forward and turn to face the other two. Car-Vex, the woman who had been rendered unconscious by the Jor-conscience, says, 'If the destroyer of Wegthor thinks to lead the Sword of Rao then he should think again.'

'We do not wish to fight you,' adds Nadira, 'but you have seen what we have seen. The General is no longer himself, and it falls to us, _as_ the Sword of Rao, to stand against him.'

'Traitors,' snarls Lor-Em. 'ALL OF YOU!'

* * *

'Command Key accepted. Genesis Chamber coming online.' The huge chamber begins to light up at various points. The liquid contained within it is clear, and dozens of small pods can be seen. Etched above each one is a sigil. Zod squints a little as he looks into the chamber, his eyes looking over everything held within it. They stop at a sigil that matches his and, involuntarily, his hand touches the glass.

'Stop this, Zod, while there's still time.'

Zod pulls his hand away quickly. 'Haven't given up on lecturing me, have you? Even in death.'

'I will not let you use the codex like this.'

Zod turns to face the Jor-conscience, his head tilted slightly, taken aback a little at the hologram's words. 'You don't have the power to stop me. The command key I've entered is revoking your authority. This ship is now under my control.'

* * *

In Northcomm command centre, as well as in other locations across the world, analysts are rushing around in response to the latest activity in orbit. More than half a dozen new ships have left the Black Zero, and this time they're headed to the military base near Metropolis.

In dozens of languages the same sort of phrase, when translated, is being used: _an attack on multiple fronts_.

* * *

'Our people can co-exist,' pleads the hologram.

'We were _masters_ of all we surveyed-' argues Zod.

'We were deluded.'

'_You_ became deluded, El. Misguided. Your solution only serves to continue the stagnation of our people.'

'And yours will result in its destruction.'

'No, El, in rebirth.' He turns away from the hologram. 'Ship, have you managed to quarantine this invasive intelligence?'

'I have.'

'Then prepare to terminate it; I'm tired of this debate.'

'Silencing me won't change anything. My son is twice the man you were, and he will finish what we started. I can promise you that.'

Zod turns to face the hologram again. 'Tell me, you have Jor-El's memories, his conscience. Can you experience his pain? I will harvest the Codex from your son's _corpse_. And I will rebuild Krypton on top of his bones.' He turns away, a flicker of grief on his face, and punches the Command Key to fully insert it into the console and the Jor-conscience disappears, smiling.

* * *

On the Black Zero, Jax-Ur rages. There are only a couple of other Kryptonians with him, and they are keeping their distance as the scientist curses the technology around him. They gasp as -

'Ah, Jax-Ur. You never seemed to be able to grasp the basic Kryptonian natures of discovery and helping-'

'I'm a scientist like you were, you _spectre_. My team and I discovered things you never even dreamed about. Things you never even _attempted_.'

'Because they were wrong. They were…evil, as humans would say.'

'_You_ are the reason everything has been going wrong on this wretched planet. On this ship. You think I didn't know? This ship has been mine for decades. You revealed yourself too soon, you arrogant _fool_.' He raises a clenched fist and twists his hand. A strange energy surrounds the hologram. 'You think I didn't study your work? That I didn't better it?'

The hologram is silent, frozen in place.

'I watched Krypton die and I smiled. You can watch this...'Metropolis' fall and do nothing.'

He presses a part of the display screen in front of him and the Black Zero's engines ignite.

* * *

'Superman, come back to base. They're here.'

Clark looks back towards the World Engine and then up at the even more distant Black Zero. He frowns as he sees the ship move.

'I'm on my way.' He fires a few more bursts of heat vision, staggers a few more sonic booms, and then rises up, up, and away.

* * *

Zod is on the bridge of the scout ship, looking out over ice and snow. He instructs the ship to access available data feeds and show him what is happening both at the landing site of the world engine and in Metropolis. He snarls with anger when he sees the world engine sitting silent, and more so when he Metropolis is still standing.

'Commander Ul, report.' He says sharply.

'Commander Ul has abandoned her post, General,' says Jax-Ur.

Zod leans forward over a control panel, his eyes closed for a moment. 'Where has she gone?'

'She is joining the boy.'

He looks up, anguished, and takes a breath. 'Have you overcome the problem you were facing?'

'I have. We are now making our way to Metropolis as you ordered, General. The World Engine will be activated soon.'

'Do not wait for me to arrive. Begin as soon as possible.'

'Understood, sir.'

Zod steps back and walks to the empty captain's seat. 'Ship, prepare engines for take off.'

'Acknowledged.'

* * *

Surrounding the small group of unarmed but armoured Kryptonians, the human soldiers stand nervously, their weapons raised. They all know it's pointless, they've either been in Smallville earlier or have seen the footage, but they go on with training and with protocol and they wait. When they hear the boom overhead, some of the soldiers visibly relax.

Faora steps forward as Clark lands and says, 'Kal-El of the House of El, son of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, and the last of us to be born on Krypton, we, the Sword of Rao, commit ourselves to you.' She kneels and the other Kryptonians kneel, too.

'I don't understand.'

She looks up at him, her face and eyes telling of remorse and pride. 'Your actions have shown us how wrong we have been; how misguided we have been. You were right: what we set out to do is not the Kryptonian way. It's not why we became the Sword of Rao, and it is not why we went up against the Council.'

'Then...you'll help me?'

Faora nods and rises, she speaks anxiously and hurriedly. 'Jax-Ur has control of the Black Zero and the General will soon arrive in the city called Metropolis.'

'Why there?'

'It is where you chose to surrender to the humans.'

Clark turns to Swanson. 'What are the reports from the world engine?'

'It's still quiet, but we're ready.'

'Kal-El, I promise you that we will do everything we can to protect the city.'

''Kal-El'? You're not calling me 'Little El' anymore?'

'You've proven yourself to be an El, and it's been an honour to rediscover myself through you.'

'Come on,' he grins, 'when this is over you've got a lot of stories to tell me.'

'And so we will, but you have your duty to do elsewhere.' She begins to take off her armour. 'Mine,' she says, and then gestures at her colleagues, 'and ours is to protect that city for as long we can. We will help evacuate it and and we will guard it and buy you time, but if Jax-Ur is able to activate and slave the Black Zero to the World Engine...'

'I understand.' There's a boom as Clark lifts off into the sky. Faora, the Kryptonians, Lois, and the various armed forces look up for a few seconds and then lose sight of him.

Faora turns to Hardy and holds out her hand, 'Let us put behind us what happened before, Colonel. We're here to help.'


	10. Chapter 10

For more than an hour the massive world engine has sat silent. Two small Kryptonian ships have been circling it and Nam-Ek has decided to position himself on the engine itself. They are there to guard it against any interference and have been patiently, for the most part, waiting for it to activate. The world engine suddenly shifts and heaves, awakening from its quiet, and the waters around its embedded legs begin to churn and bubble.

Clark streaks along the ionosphere, his senses filtering through masses of radio-chatter on shortwave bands as he listens in on communications between the fighter jets circling an area ranging between five and twenty miles away from the engine.

_'__She's woken up, boys and girls.'_

_'__Let's try not to get too trigger happy.'_

_'__Blue Boy is on his way.'_

He smiles a little at that one: 'Blue Boy'.

For a second he looks up into space and observes LexCorp, Queen, Stagg, and Wayne Industries' satellites begin to reposition themselves – each one given over to the military forces gathered below in order to monitor and help coordinate the multi-national efforts against the Kryptonians.

* * *

Above Metropolis, over the island of New Troy, the Black Zero descends, its shadow growing bigger and bigger. People in the streets, many hurrying and adhering to the calls to evacuate, look up into the sky, awed and afraid. People in buildings are standing at the windows in order to see, and many are waiting their turn to evacuate. Television screens throughout the city are tuned into news channels showing the huge skyscraper-sized ship and none are showing the evacuation. All have agreed not to.

On the outskirts of the island, at Clinton Bridge, Mortimer Bridge, Queensland Bridge and so on, thousands of people are walking to safety. Flitting between the buildings are just over half a dozen huge platforms, each one carried by a Kryptonian. Every ten or so minutes the platforms are transported from the various parks throughout the city to the drop-off points by the bridges.

The city is eerie in the absence of the noise of the usual traffic, and eerier still with the tromp-tromp of the people walking through its streets. Buses line the streets, with some of them returning from the drop-off points in order to collect more passengers. The effort is organised, the earlier panic caused by the announcement of the evacuation now quelled. Of course, there are still people talking - that's human nature. Jokes are being told, and reassurances given. There is fear and uncertainty, but there's also confidence and hope. Metropolis is a city of around eleven million people. Right now, however, the focus is on New Troy and its population of around two million. On an ordinary work day the influx of workers and tourists would have more than doubled that, but this hasn't been an ordinary day and many had been advised not to come to work. It's a blessing and a curse as there is uncertainty as how many people are actually on the island. The current estimate, based on data cobbled together from the MTA and traffic services, is that there are now one million three hundred seventy-two thousand eight hundred and twelve people, and decreasing.

* * *

The world engine shifts and rises, and the waters churn and boil and freeze. The gravity anomaly resulting from the world engine's initial impact is somehow utilised by the machine, and globules of water and bits of earth rise and merge and then, without warning, slam into the ground. All around the small island huge waves 'ripple' out. The machine shifts again and repeats the process...a fraction harder.

A wide beam of heat tears through the sky and hits the machine. The organic metal glows and the machine whines and seems to sigh. Black storm clouds begin to form above it and beneath it, a kilometre or so above the ground, a huge outlet opens and a white energy crackles. The beam of heat moves across the surface of the machine and the machine begins to hum. The vibrations from the humming shake the loose stones and boulders surrounding it, and the smaller ones explode and fill the air with a thick dust.

The two Kryptonian ships zero-in on the heat beam, approaching on either side of it, and they streak through the air towards its origin. Purple and blue blasts of energy sear the air, striking nothing. The heat beam stops and disappears and Clark attacks one of the ships, grabbing a dragonfly-looking wing and pulling the ship off course. He lets go and attacks the other ship with a blast of ice-breath, freezing its two left wings and forcing the pilot into a dive.

The world engine suddenly 'slumps' and a blast of white energy fires out of the outlet underneath it, pulverising the earth below. The storm clouds begin to emit bolts of lightning, ionizing the air and the dust surrounding the machine grows thicker.

Nam-Ek leaps through the air, his fists outstretched in order to slam into Clark, but Clark sees him, grabs his right arm and spins him in the air. Round and round they spin and Nam-Ek tries to grab at Clark's hands with his free hand, and then roars when Clark lets him go and sends him flying into the machine. The impact shunts the huge machine and one of the legs rises up out of the ground. The air suddenly shifts and Clark clutches his head in pain as the world engine emits a frequency that hurts him and thickens the air all around it.

Clark coughs and struggles to breathe, and then begins to fall. The machine fires a series of gravity pulses and Clark and the two ships, along with masses of rock, dust, and water, rise and fall with each pulse. The sky darkens even more, and the dense dust blots out the early morning sun.

Miles away, analysts on the surrounding warships respond to the incoming data streams and feed information to their superiors. Deep in the waters, submarines observe the effects on the seabed and marine life, sitting silently as all sorts of sea creatures rush past them. The crack created by the world engine's initial impact shifts and heaves, and the moving earth pushes the water around it to move, too.

* * *

On the Black Zero, Jax-Ur looks out over the city of Metropolis and watches as the 'insects' scurry away. He raises his gloved hand and holds it out over the city.

'When I destroyed Wegthor you hunted me down like a criminal. You couldn't see the beauty of the resulting change in Krypton's waters. You stopped me from doing what had to be done.' He looks back at the still frozen hologram. 'You cannot stop this.'

He closes his fist and an energy beam as wide as a city block bursts out of the bottom of the Black Zero and slams into the ground. Cars and trucks, benches and stalls, and anything else in the immediate area rise up into the air and then fall as if being pushed hard into the ground. The concrete and asphalt heaves and windows explode.

The immediate area, in a five block radius, is empty, vacated by the Kryptonians before the ship had descended. The people in the buildings in the surrounding area, though, begin to scream as the floors shake and windows crack. Some rush to the exits, others fall to their knees, and others still try to make their own exits.

'And now, as I did on Wegthor I will do here and use one of your own creations against you.' He twists his clenched fist and the energies of the Phantom Drive begin to be fed into the beam. The beam changes from a white to one with a purplish hue, and the air groans and hums as the Black Zero seems to pulse. The beam fades and the air is silent save for the sounds of alarms and fires and groaning metal and falling glass and concrete. Jax-Ur smiles and opens his hand wide, and a massive beam as wide and round as the bottom of the Black Zero drives into the ground, and all around it buildings seem to give up and fall.

Underground, the lights in the silent metro stations flicker and the tunnels shudder and collapse. Silent and abandoned service trains suddenly rise up off the tracks before slamming back down, sparking and cracking. Thick cables connected to various generators tear and send streaks of electricity along the tracks and up the walls.

A homeless man screams in terror and pain and the ceiling nearby falls in, and Nadira lands in the rubble. She holds out her hand and says, 'Come with me if you want to live.' She smiles and adds, 'All of you.' Behind the homeless man is his family and dozens of other homeless people, and they cling to each other in terror.

* * *

Clark lands heavily on the small island. The air is now so thick that his cape barely flutters. He stands upright and tries to breathe. Nam-Ek lands in front of him, his visor filtering the air and his movements unimpeded. He rolls his shoulders and stalks towards Clark, rubbing the sharp edges of his armoured fists together. To either side of them are the crashed Kryptonian ships. Lor-Em clambers out of his and shoulders a large gun.

* * *

Massive waves churn the waters once more. The warships and aircraft carriers struggle against them, and the last of the fighter jets takes off.

Underwater, three nuclear submarines prepare their warheads, targeting the island and the world engine.

* * *

On the island we saw before, hundreds of women are gathered at the foot of an immense temple. On the white stairs stands a tall woman with dark hair. A small crown sits on her head and a red cape is draped over her shoulders and over her left arm.

An auburn-haired woman steps up, her eyes full of rage, and says: 'Man's World is attacking us!'

'No,' says the woman with the crown, 'Man's World is _being_ attacked. My sisters, what we are seeing is something which may need our intervention.'

'But the Gate, my Queen,' interrupts a stern-looking woman dressed in armour, her helmet held against her hip. 'We cannot abandon it.'

'And we will not, but we must be ready to help Man's World if this invading force should look to succeed.'

'Mother,' says the young woman we saw earlier calming the horses, 'we have been protecting this world from the creatures of the Gate for centuries and we vowed to the goddesses to never reveal ourselves.'

'I think even they did not envision something like this happening, my daughter. I pray we do not have to take action and that the Great Barrier holds, but it would be foolish of me, of us all, to not be prepared.'

* * *

The large man we saw earlier swimming with and racing against dolphins floats in the Atlantic, his fingers are pressed into his temples as he focuses. We see him mouth the words 'help them'.

* * *

The Kryptonians in Metropolis are beginning to tire as they desperately continue the evacuation and try to shore up various buildings. On the streets the once calm evacuees are now running in terror as the pulses from the Black Zero destabilise the infrastructure around them. Each pulse is like a mini earthquake, and the explosions of the cars and trucks being crushed all around them only adds to the terror.

Faora flies at the Black Zero only to slam into a previously invisible but now purple (at the point of impact) forcefield. She hovers in the air for a moment and then smiles and disappears in a burst of speed.

* * *

The three Kryptonians lie at Clark's feet and he falls to his knees and coughs blood. The world engine pulses again and the wave of gravity pushes Clark into the ground.

* * *

The submarines are floundering as the waters batter against them. Alarms are blaring, warning of impending hull breaches. Armed missiles with nuclear warheads sit in their onboard silos and a catastrophe seems almost certain.

Huge tentacles suddenly wrap around each submarine, stabilising them against the raging water. On board, each captain takes advantage of the reprieve and issues instructions to fire the missiles.

High in the sky, dozens of fighter jets storm the area around the island firing missiles and chancing with various kinds of ammunition. The missiles from the jets keep getting repelled and some of them, somehow, blink out of existence. The pulses from the world engine wreck havoc with the jets' systems forcing them out of the control. Two spin into each other, their pilots ejecting just in time.

The huge missiles from the submarines tear through the air, rising and then turning. The jets pull back and out of the way of the missiles and, down on the ground, Clark struggles to get up, his eyes on the two parachuting pilots.

Metallic tentacles suddenly spring out around the engine, lashing out at anything approaching it.

The submarine-missiles approach the world engine, thundering through the sky, and then seem to slow down. Their thrusters are firing but instead of striking their target the missiles seem to stop as if something is pushing against them or pulling them back.

Then one of them explodes and starts a chain reaction.

Steve Trevor fires two missiles and pulls up in order to avoid the attacking tentacles. He swears as a gravity pulse emitted by the world engine repels the missiles, sending them spinning back at him. Alarms go off in the cockpit and he struggles to control the plane, and then there is the loudest explosion he has ever heard and then silence as he can no longer hear anything. As he struggles with his flight stick he chances a look out of the window and his eyes widen as he sees a white globe of energy expanding. He swears again as the spinning missiles are vaporised by the expanding energy.

* * *

On the island of women they watch anxiously as the sky beyond their barrier lights up. Massive waves crash against it, the barrier buffering and filtering the impacts and keeping the waters around the island relatively still. Missiles suddenly appear in the sky, some spinning, and explode against the barrier, and the barrier flickers. The young woman rises into the air, a short sword in her right hand, and the Queen says, 'Hold, Diana. Patience.'

* * *

Clark stands upright, the ground beneath him liquefied by the intense gravity. He grits his teeth and begins to float. The energy from the nuclear warheads sizzles around him and his eyes scan through the electromagnetic spectrum and he sees that the world engine is absorbing the energies and using them to do its work. He turns his head and sees that the downed pilots are safe in the water miles away. He struggles to fly and so walks, instead, on liquid earth.

* * *

Flying towards Metropolis is a fleet of fighter jets and a C-17. Among the occupants onboard the C-17 are Lois and Hamilton – sitting in the cargo hold – and Hardy – piloting the ship. Lois holds up the command key and says to Hamilton that 'Jor-El said that he made this usable by me. As soon as the world engine is disabled and they use their Phantom Drive, then I can insert this into this ship and activate the modifications we made back at the base.'

The launch-bay opens and wild winds rush through the C-17. Faora enters and rushes to Lois and says, 'They have activated it. It is almost time.'

* * *

Clark forces his way into the beam, fighting against the push of gravity and the molecular destabilisation. He looks up and uses his vision to filter the light from the beam and find the point deep within the machine that he needs to destroy in order to stop the destruction. His feet sink into the liquid earth and he resists the urge to let go and give it up. Slowly, he rises up and hovers, and then he closes his eyes and he remembers:

He remembers Jonathan taking him by the hand and leading through the school gates on his first day.

He remembers Jonathan looking uncomfortable as he watches Lana hug him in the playground.

He remembers his fifteenth birthday when he blew the cake all over his parents and some of his classmates.

He remembers attaching a cape to his dog and running with him through the fields, arms wide as if flying.

He remembers stepping in front of a bully and staring him down.

He remembers the bullied boy thanking him.

He remembers his first article and the look of pride in his parents' eyes when he showed it to them.

He remembers the casket at Jonathan's funeral.

He remembers Zod stalking towards his mother and seeing her fear and defiance.

He remembers the 'vision' Zod showed him and the thousands upon thousands of skulls.

He remembers and he flies, up, up and into the world engine.

* * *

The explosion of the world engine sends shockwaves across the region. Caught up in the battering effects, Steve Trevor and his jet disappear.

Huge tentacles wrap around the floundering warships and aircraft carriers, and while dozens of people fall into the water, the ships remain intact as the ocean heaves and storms.

In the sky, pilots eject from their aircraft, chancing their parachutes over further struggling against their no longer operating jets. Defunct missiles spin and collide into each other, and mounds of rock and massive globules of air and water fall.

In Metropolis, the Black Zero suddenly stops firing its beam, and tonnes of debris fall from the sky.

* * *

Jax-Ur curses and, in a rage, rushes at the immobilised hologram. He tries to punch it but his hand goes through both the shield and hologram and he falls to the floor.

'Always! Always in the way! No more. NO MORE!' he shouts as he scrambles up and storms out of the control room. The two Kryptonians who had been with him quickly follow.

'Loathe as I am to engage physically, Jor-El and his misbegotten son have left us with no choice.'

* * *

Twenty miles away from the island of women, the barrier shimmers against the missiles blinking into existence. A hole appears and a missile streaks through. Steve Trevor's jet pops into the area like a spinning top skipping through the air. It twists and slips through the hole just as it closes.

'Go, Diana!' orders the Queen, and the young women flies at the plane as it bursts into flame.

'Hera, help me!' she cries, catching the plane and slowing its fall.

* * *

Clark wakes up, the sky is clearing and the rising sun shines down on ruined island. The waters are still chaotic but there is nothing feeding them and making them rise like before. He's dazed and confused but he closes his eyes again for a moment and listens:

_'__Metropolis is in ruins!'_

_'__...Kryptonians are still evacuating...'_

_'__...we've got a huge wave coming in!'_

_'__There could be thousands trapped or dead.'_

He pushes himself up, stumbles, falls and then digs his fingers into the ground. He takes a couple of breaths and then heaves. The ground cracks and Clark yells in anguish.

* * *

'We are ready,' says Faora, and she gestures for the co-pilot to leave.

Hardy nods and checks the readings. 'The ship has to be within range of their drive. I'm taking her in,' he says, and he pushes on the throttle. ''A good death is its own reward', right?'

'There is no need for you to die today, Colonel.' She smiles, grabs him, rushes to the open hold, kisses his forehead, and then throws him out of the plane.

The plane shakes violently as a beam of heat tears through it and Faora falls, too.

* * *

Jax-Ur and the two other Kryptonians are attacking the fighter jets and the C-17, and the members of the Sword of Rao fly in to counter them. The C-17 is on fire but still intact as Car-Vex had tackled Jax-Ur before he could cut through it completely with his heat vision. The two Kryptonians struggle in the air and slam into a tall office building. There is a 'boom' as Jax-Ur is knocked out of the building by Car-Vex, and another boom as she flies out after him. The top floors of the building begin to collapse in on themselves.

'Form a perimeter!' shouts Faora. 'Contain them!'

Three Kryptonians fly back and form a perimeter of around twenty-five blocks. In the streets beyond the perimeter thousands of Metropolitans are fleeing.

Faora swoops down and catches the C-17, and she then guides it towards the Black Zero as Nadira and the others tackle Jax-Ur and his two cronies.

From out of nowhere a huge mound of earth careens into one of Jax-Ur's team members and sends him, and it, slamming into the side of the Black Zero.

_'__And the Sword of Rao will slice through deception and its wielder will return Hope to the people_,' whispers Faora, as she watches the scene playing out in front of her. Fighter jets fire tank-piercing rounds, kinetic energy projectors, and explosives, layering their attack and forcing Jax-Ur and the others back towards the Black Zero as the inexperienced fliers find themselves overwhelmed.

The massive scout ship bursts through the cloud bank and the pilots engage in evasive manoeuvres. Zod smiles and pushes a button...and nothing happens. He pushes the button again and, again, nothing happens.

'Ship, fire on those aircraft!' he shouts out, standing in anger.

'Negative. Weapons system inaccessible by current user.'

'I am General Zod. I am Krypton's military commander and I have command of this ship. I order you to fire.'

'Negative. You are authorised to fly this ship for the safety of the Genesis Chamber.'

Something catches Zod's attention at the observation window:

'General? Would you care to step outside?'


	11. Chapter 11

Behind Clark, the Sword of Rao members are fighting Jax-Ur and his remaining underling. Fighter jets circle the area, keeping their distance and letting the Kryptonians on Earth's side do their thing.

Below him, Faora sets down the extinguished C-17 and prepares to join the fight.

In front of him, his vision of using Earth to rebuild Krypton shattered, his hope of purifying the bloodlines and getting rid of the defunct Houses ruined, and the reminder of his betrayal to his oldest friend staring him in the face, Zod snaps and rushes at him.

It all happens in a fraction of a second, but he leaps and Clark uncrosses his arms, raises them, and then brings his double-fist down on to the back of Zod's head. Zod falls to the ground, tumbling over, and Faora leaps up into the air. He catches sight of her as he falls head over heels, and he smiles. There's a 'boom' when she punches him and, as he spins crazily from the attack, as he falls the rest of the way to the ground, there is a sadness in his eyes.

The impact of his landing creates a deep crater within a larger one, and the debris falls onto him and covers him. Thick beams of heat hit him and the metal and other materials melt around him, sealing him in place.

Faora flies up to Kal as he hovers there, pain in his eyes as he looks out over the destruction. He looks down as the members of the Sword of Rao seal their former leader. 'It's time, Kal,' she says. 'We'll prepare the engine.' He nods and says that he'll bring the rocket.

At the edge of the destruction site, a small crowd is gathering – among them are Jimmy, Perry, and Lois. Lois tries to get his attention: 'Superman! Is it over?' He shakes his head and says that it will be soon. Helicopters begin to venture in overhead, the calm calling to them.

'Maybe you don't have to send them back. You've stopped Zod, _they_ helped us, so maybe..?'

'Maybe.' He holds out a hand as Lois tries to come forward. 'It's best to stay back for now, Ms Lane.' He smiles, 'let's get this wrapped up and then maybe we can talk.'

'_Exclusively._'

He smiles and walks to the C-17.

'Hey! Exclusively!'

Clark comes out of the C-17 holding his rocket aloft and Dev-Em floats down from the Black Zero and smiles, dusting his hands. 'We got your delivery.'

'Sorry about the 'packaging'.'

'Don't be. It makes them easier to handle. Do you need a hand?'

'No, I've got this.'

'Okay, I'll go get the other 'package'.'

Clark flies up to the Black Zero where some of the others are waiting for him and Jimmy shows Perry the shot of Clark holding up the rocket

'The Phantom Drive is online, so now it's your turn,' says Faora. A hum fills the air as energies from the two drives seem to call to each other. Clark steps forward and the humming increases. The head of the rocket turns and blue-white energy ripples over it. Just beyond the engine's shielding a small portal opens. The rocket rises out of Clark's hands and begins to move back, and the portal follows, getting bigger and bigger.

There is an explosion as Dev-Em crashes through the hull of the Black Zero and into the engine. The portal sparks and shrinks and then expands violently, creating a vortex that starts to pull the ship inside out.

The large mound of earth containing Nam-Ek and two other Kryptonians gets pulled into the vortex and Clark and Faora find themselves getting drawn in, too. They grab onto the floor of the room and dig their fingers in. Faora's don't give her the same purchase as Clark's and she slides along the floor, scratching into it. She pulls out her blade and stabs it into the floor. Blue-white energy ripples over the Kryptonians and their faces and bodies seem to bleed, like some kind of flesh-based chromatography, and they all, including Clark, writhe and squirm in pain. The metals of the ship 'protest' against what is happening but above the deafening sound of tearing metal and screaming winds, the enhanced hearing of the Kryptonians picks up the screams from the ground below.

Zod pulls at the restricting metal containing him and glares at the people around him. '_Insects!_ Nothing but insects!' He has one hand free and he turns his restrained shoulder and the ground heaves. The humans scream and shout and scramble for safety. 'I will make you all suffer!' He tugs and grunts, 'One,' and again, 'by', and finally, 'one!' The ground heaves again and then the tonnes of metal he had been bound in shatters, with shrapnel and large chunks being flung all over the place. There is a blur as something rushes in and shields the people from the shrapnel.

'He's removing his armour!' shouts Nadira, coming to a stop.

Clark pushes himself up and slams his foot into the floor, embedding it for a moment. One of Jax-Ur's former technicians pulls himself over to a console and presses something and the effects of the portal relax a little.

'Sir! We can hold the portal open for a while and give you the time you need, but-'

'Go, Kal! Go!' urges Faora, and he's gone.

Clark dashes at Zod as he tries to peel his armour off. He grabs him and soars up into the air. Zod thrashes and pounds on his back, each punch eliciting a boom, but Clark grits his teeth and keeps flying. They arc in sky and Zod twists and kicks, and then punches Clark in the face with his armoured fists, and Clark ignores the scratches and welts. He looks away for a moment back down at the Earth – his head snapping back a couple of times from Zod's repeated punches – and then pulls to the side and streaks down. Zod's armour lights up and his visor fritzs and warns him that it is no longer stable. His shouts going unheard, Zod then grabs at Clarks face and tries to claw at his eyes.

There is a massive explosion and the sky fills with rock and dust and minerals.

Clark, painfully, pulls himself out of the huge hole in the ground. He's covered in a reddish-orange dust. He looks up at the sky and frowns a little at the sun sitting low in the sky. There's the sound of large rocks being tossed aside and Clark turns to face Zod.

'Your mother believed you were beyond my reach. I _swore_ to her that I would find you. I _told_ her that believing you to be safe from me was foolish.' Zod rises from his knees, glaring at Clark, and he, too, is covered in a reddish-orange dust.

We see Zod through Clark's eyes as he scans the electromagnetic spectrum and stops at a particular frequency. Zod looks like he is made of liquid gold. His vision adjusts again as he filters things around him back to 'normal' but maintains the frequency he searched out on Zod.

Pieces of Zod's armour fall off but he flexes his covered fingers and grips at his gauntlets. He peels off the sparking visor and then his chest plate and tosses them to the ground.

'You are an abomination,' he says, stalking forward. 'You should not even exist. I will do what should have been done decades ago.'

Zod barrels into Clark, his onboard systems warning him of the effects of the impact, and the armour on his back falls off. His tackle sends them both tumbling over and over like bouncing wrecking balls unleashed, and the canyon shudders and rocks fall and the air begins to fill with dust.

They wrestle, hand in hand, their feet digging into the rocky ground and creating grooves and cracks. 'You took away my people!' Zod headbutts him and then drives his knee into Clark's chest, the shockwave pushing the dust around them away. 'You stole my soldiers.' He punches Clark's thigh and Clark falls to his other knee. 'You destroyed any _hope_ of Krypton being reborn!' Zod twists and throws Clark into the ground and then kicks him. Clark skips across the ground like stone skipping the surface of a lake and then flips himself upright. He dashes towards Zod, stopping just short of the General's reach.

He circles the General, wary and looking for an opening. 'Not only did you want to commit genocide, you wanted to kill and 'cleanse' your own people! You're not a god.'

'No, but I _am_ what I was made to be. _This_ is the sole purpose for which I was born. I warned you before, I will do _anything_ for the greater good - for the _purity_ of my people!' He lunges at him with his gauntlet blade and Clark sidesteps him. Zod twists and shifts into a crouch and swings the blade at Clark's legs, smiling as Clark jumps back and punches the blade, shattering it. Zod closes the distance between them, head-butting Clark again, and letting go of the remains of his gauntlets.

'Who do you think trained Faora?' He ducks under Kal's right cross and drives his fist into his ribs, and then grabs him by the leg and pulls him back into the ground. 'You think,' he stomps on Kal's chest, 'momentarily,' his fist pounds into Kal's face, 'besting _her_,' he strikes a point on Kal's shoulder and Kal cries out with pain, 'means you can beat _me_?!' He kicks him in the face and steps along the crater that has been made as a result of him pounding on Kal, and watches as Kal's body creates a tunnel, smiling to himself as it collapses. His smile grows wider as he watches Kal pull himself out of the rocks. 'You think corrupting her mind against me gives you some kind of edge? You are _nothing! Your very existence is a heresy!_'

He leaps into the air and drives his feet into Clark's back. He grabs him by the cape and begins spinning him around and the tosses him up into a towering rock formation. Clark crashes into it and the rock shifts and cracks and the topmost part falls forward, driving Clark into the ground and smashing into rubble around him. Zod leaps in and pulls Clark out, grabbing his face by the jaw and turning his head to look at him. 'I can see the fear in your eyes, El, just as I saw it in your father's eyes when I stabbed him through his weak little heart.'

'I'm not afraid of you, Zod,' Clark coughs. 'I'm afraid _for_ you. Of how you lost your way.'

Zod punches him with an uppercut, sending him soaring into the air and scraping along a rockwall. Boulders tumble and Zod flies up and punches him across the length of the canyon and crashing into and through a series of rock formations. Clark pushes himself out of the hole he has made and slumps on to the ledge before him. Zod's fingers flex and he dashes in and begins pummelling Clark at superspeed, driving him back into the hole. The wall cracks and rocks fall on them both and Zod keeps punching.

Clark kicks him and sends him back and crashing into the other side of the rock formations around them. He staggers out of the hole, clutching his chest, and falls to his knees. He looks at Zod and sees he's now a faded gold with streaks of different kinds of bright reds. Zod pulls himself out of the rock face, grabs a boulder, and throws it at him. He laughs at Clark's inability to move out of the way.

''Twice the man', he said. Ha!' He looks up at the sky and taunts. 'Are you seeing this, Jor-El? Are you seeing me end your House?' Clark begins to rise and Zod hops forward, his eyes closed and his head shaking a little, and then -

_'__Burn!'_ heat vision bursts from Zod's eyes, engulfing Kal in flames - who covers his face with his arms – and pushing him back into wall. Rock dust ignites and the blues and greys of the canyon darken and mix with the reds and oranges. The wall cracks and _melts_ and liquid rock begins to pour down and into the hole, covering Clark.

Through grit teeth, Clark steps forward. Molten rock drips from him as thick, glowing globules. He takes another step and another. His hands move to the side and he is no longer shielding his face. Zod growls and leans forward a little, and with each step Clark takes Zod's growl gets louder.

Smoke rises from the ground, and the rocks bubble and burst, and then there is a 'spurt' in Zod's attack – a flicker of less than a second. Then another, slightly longer – and a third, longer still.

Then it's gone, and heat radiates from Clark, the shield on his chest glows, his face is pink and red, and his hair is mussed. Zod crouches and glares at him, and only small flickers and sparks tease from his eyes. Clark staggers towards him, fighting against the exhaustion from the battle and everything else he has had to go through. Zod shakes his head, clearing his gummy eyes, and stumbles and then drives himself upwards, sending Clark into the air again with another uppercut. He then leaps into the air and flies away from him.

Reeling from the punch, exhaustion slowing him down, Clark hangs in the air for a moment after slowing his involuntary flight. He sees Zod's energy trail and breathes, 'No!' He follows the trail and catches up to him, coming in from underneath and taking him up into orbit. Zod twists and pulls free, kicking Clark away and then dives towards Metropolis.

Clark intercepts him again, slamming into his back and driving him back to the canyon. Their impact changes the landscape even more than it had done, and the only sound that can be heard is of the rocks tumbling back to the ground and coming to rest.

Clark coughs and pushes himself up to a seated position. He looks at Zod and the colours are now much darker than before – the gold is gone. Zod rolls on the ground and forces himself up, clawing and brushing away the dust on him.

'Your skills gave you a massive edge, General,' says Clark, his face swollen, cut, and burnt, 'but you threatened the wrong planet and the wrong people.'

Zod lunges and throws a right cross at Clark's face and there is a sickening crunch when his fist connects. He slumps to the floor, his mouth wide and his eyes showing pain but no sounds come from his mouth. He's not just a Kryptonian soldier, he's a Kryptonian general and crying out because of physical pain is rare for a Kryptonian general.

'Our powers...Jax-Ur said we would have hours.'

Clark smiles and shakes his head. 'Rope a dope. Your hand is broken.' He holds out his hand in order to help Zod up.

'You think this is over?' he snarls at him, clutching his twisted hand to his chest.

'Your powers are exhausted, Zod. There's nothing more you can do.'

'You think you can contain _me_?'

'I know I can,' and he grabs him by the scruff of his neck and takes off into the sky.

* * *

Above Metropolis the gravity anomalies caused by the meeting of the two Phantom Drives continues to rage. Helicopters circle it and the scout ship hovers just at the edge of the event horizon. Clark flies in, Zod in hand, and stops alongside the scout ship.

'Ship?'

'Three minutes until integrity collapse.'

Clark holds up Zod by the front of his bodysuit. 'You had choices, Zod, and you repeatedly made the wrong ones. As the last son of Krypton, I sentence you to-'

'You are no Kryptonian,' Zod spits.

Clark looks at him sadly. 'I sentence you to the Phantom Zone.'

He flies to the hole in the Black Zero where Faora, Dev-Em, and the others are waiting. Behind them, deep within the engine room is a portal. Jax-Ur and the other two Kryptonians who had fought against Clark and the Sword of Rao have already been taken through it. The Black Zero begins to groan as the energies start to expand out of the portal.

'You can stay, you know?' says Clark to Faora as Dev-Em takes Zod from him.

'No, Kal, we can't.' She nods at the Jor-conscience who is overseeing the portal. 'Your father is right, the way we are is too engrained in us.'

'But you changed. You all changed.'

'Not all, and who knows how we would handle being here long term? Who knows how we would adjust to all the new things we can see and do? It's best we leave as our powers leave us.'

The portal widens and blue and white energy sparks over Kal and Faora.

'Look after Argo for us.'

''Argo'?'

She smiles. 'It's the ship's name.' She steps back. 'Go, Little El. Bring us back when this world is ready. Oh, and your father said to tell you that he's going to play a quick game of catch with you.' Clark looks at her quizzically. 'You'll see.'

Clark nods and floats backwards. The blue and white energies expand and ripple over the Black Zero. The energies start to shimmer around Clark and he pulls back further to where the scout ship is still hovering. The air fills with the sounds of wind and strained metal and, within seconds, the Black Zero is sucked in and all is quiet.

Clark floats down to the now larger crowd gathered below.

'You did it,' says Jenny. 'You saved us.'

Clark smiles at her, sadly, and then looks out over the ruin of the city. 'Ship?' he asks, 'How much time?'

'Four hours before first impact.'

'Thank you.' He tilts his head a little and then nods. 'Excuse me,' he says, 'I've still got work to do,' and he dashes into the ruins and begins to move rubble around. Overhead, rescue copters begin to arrive.

The scout ship moves into the area above ground zero and begins shining lights and providing readings to the rescue workers scrambling through the debris. Sparks of lightning flash and everyone looks up, worried, as a small portal opens. Clark rushes up and out pops the rocket, and the portal immediately closes behind it.

'Catch, hmm?' he says as he catches it. He smiles and takes it on to the scout ship.

* * *

Out in the Indian Ocean the tentacles wrapped around the various ships and the submarines let them go and disappear into the depths. Sharks and other larger marine life that had been nudging the humans who had fallen overboard back to the surface begin to move away.

In the Atlantic, the big man with the dolphins lies back in the water and laughs. 'Saved them. Ha!' The dolphins laugh with him.

* * *

'SU-PER-MAN! SU-PER-MAN!' the crowd in Indonesia chants and cheers, over and over. They watch as he flies towards a dock, pulling along a number of fishing boats.

* * *

On one of the warships, he smiles as he listens to sailors and pilots tell of their strange rescues by sharks, dolphins and other large sea-life.

'I'll do what I can to help find your colleagues. I'm glad you're all well,' he says, as he floats up in the air. He flies away and says to himself, smiling, 'Good to know you're around, Arthur.'

* * *

Drones of various sizes fly over the destruction site of the world engine and the now changed landscape of the Grand Canyon.

* * *

Clark and Martha are working through the wreckage of the Kent farmhouse; clearing up bits of debris and moving salvaged items.

'It's not going to be the same here, Ma,' says Clark, sadly.

'It was never meant to be. Things always change, you know that.'

'Still...' he pauses, frowns, and looks up.

'What's wrong?'

'We may have guests.'

'What? When?'

'In about five minutes.'

'I'll put some drinks together, then,' says Martha, smiling.

A few minutes later there is a knock at the open door and Pete Ross looks in, smiling.

'We figured you'd be here.' He steps in and looks around the wreck and his smile disappears. 'It's worse in here than we thought.'

'It's not so bad, Pete,' says Martha as she steps in with a tray of drinks. She pauses, frowns, and says, 'there are more of you here than I thought there would be.'

Pete smiles again and says, 'You should go, Clark. There are other places you need to be. We'll look after things here.'

Whitney and a number of others are outside the Kent farmhouse. In the drive are several trucks loaded with equipment and materials.

'Smallville looks after her own, remember?'

* * *

Newspaper headlines announce various stories:

'Memorial Held', says _The Daily Planet_.

'Doesn't He Rest?' wonders the _Metropolis Mail._

'A Hero Amongst Us' declares the _Gotham Post_.

'World's End Missing Pilot Returns', announces the _Gateway City Herald_.

'I was taken to an island of women and no one believed me' laments _The National Whisper_.

'King of Atlantis?' queries _The Star_.

'Ozone partially restored?' asks _The Telegraph._

And so on.

* * *

In a meeting room deep within the UN building, military and government representatives from dozens of nations are gathered together. In the centre of the massive table in the middle of the room a small spherical device hums. The people are agitated and the whispers are loud. A set of doors open and more people walk in, and the device blinks and the top half of the sphere rises an inch or so. The doors close and the top half of the device turns and a loud beep is emitted.

'_Sound disrupters engaged. Electromagnetic buffers engaged. Meeting room secure.'_

'The world has changed, my friends. The world has changed and it down to us to ensure that that change is for the good of mankind. Before, there were two things which…caused discomfort for people like us - the intelligent and the aware. Two things which rested on one question: are we alone in the universe.

'Before, although the hope was that the answer was 'no' we found the answer was 'yes' and it was uncomfortable because it was so isolating and depressing. Now, the answer truly is 'no' and it is uncomfortable, and even frightening, because now…now we are no longer the giants we once were.

'You know me for my philanthropy, my businesses, my stubbornness, my arrogance, and so many other things deemed to be both positive and negative. You know me as all those things but I stand before you now as a man, as one of you, and ask that you let me and people like me step up and help lift us all to levels comparable with those the world now thinks are our betters.

'The world has changed, my friends, and it's down to us to make sure that that change is for the better, for us - for mankind.

* * *

**One year later.**

'What are you going to do when you're not saving the world?' asks Martha. 'Have you given any thought to that?'

'I have, actually,' he says, smiling. 'I've been offered a job, one where I can keep my ear to the ground. Where people won't look twice when I want to go somewhere dangerous, or start asking questions as to why I'm there, but also where I can do good in other ways. Where I can bring attention to problems I can't tackle in the cape. The world's changing, Ma, and not all of it is good'

'And where is this job?'

'Metropolis.'

'Ah, so you're moving there for the job, _not_ for Lois...'

'Ma!'

* * *

'Meet our new stringer. This is Clark Kent,'

Lombard turns away from Lois and Jenny and actually looks excited. 'Wait, _the_ Clark Kent? The one who's been reporting from the 'World's End' rescue sites?'

Clark holds out his hand, smiling, and Lombard shakes it enthusiastically.

'The same,' says Perry. 'We finally convinced him to settle down,' he says, looking at Lois for a second.

'I'm way more into all things sports,' says Lombard, 'but your pieces on the refugee camps and crisis centres really got the attention of a lot of people,' he holds up the tickets he had been showing Lois, 'even these guys. And the New Nations stuff? Woof. Props to you, Clarkie.' He slaps Clark on the arm and his eyes widen a little with surprise. 'You a sports-guy?' Lombard pulls his hand back to his side and Clark sort of shrugs and says 'not really'. 'Ah, well, we probably won't get along, but good to have you aboard.' He turns to Perry and says, 'Perry? Stringer? This guy?'

'Freelance is a different world, Lombard. You want me to let you check it out?'

'No, sir. Thank you, sir.' He looks at his hand and flexes his fingers.

Lois steps forward, smiling. 'Hi. Lois Lane. Welcome to the Planet.'

Clark's smile is wide as he and Lois shake hands. He adjusts his shoulder strap, and says, 'Glad to be here, Lois.'

_Fin_

* * *

**Author's note**

Firstly, apologies for the now misleading title of this fan-fic – at the length it has turned out, this is clearly not a 'slight alternative'. I had only meant to do brief scenes, but I'm afraid I got carried away.

Secondly, thank you to all who read and posted their words of encouragement – it means a lot to me to know you enjoy my work.

Thirdly, I'm certain I dropped the ball a few times in doing this, so thank you for putting up with my fumbles.

I hope the wrap up wasn't too much of a let down - it usually is the hardest bit to do, in my opinion.

Some of you may feel there were more fight scenes than there should have been – and maybe you're right – I just feel that when you have almost a dozen Kryptonians around it's a tad nonsensical to limit the action to just four of them ;) Also, that gosh-darn world engine doing its thing has repercussions (which, perhaps, we'll see in the new movie...).

Some of you may also feel that this was 'too clean' – but we'll just have to agree to disagree ;)

Also, apologies for flitting between using Clark and Kal – and for all those smiles at the end.

Finally, I hope you will all forgive me for the length of this, and for the liberties I took with it.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to read it.

I wish you all well.


End file.
